Drug trafficker jailed for three years

Diego Borg, a drug addict and trafficker, was yesterday jailed for three years by Magistrate Miriam Hayman.

Borg had been charged in March 1999 after the police had found heroin and drug related items in his Qormi house as well as in a flat he had at Bugibba. He was also charged with selling drugs close to a school in Qormi.

The court noted that Borg declared he was unemployed and living on the dole but could not understand how a person receiving an unemployment benefit of just over Lm35 could have a house, a flat, keep a wife and a two-year-old son as well as pay the hire purchase on a Ford escort he owned.

The court further noted that initially the accused had pleaded not guilty but later admitted he used to buy heroin and sell some of it. But Magistrate Hayman said she was not convinced he did not sell more heroin than he had admitted to.

Borg said he used to buy three grams of heroin for Lm100 and from each gram he used to make 10 sachets, of which he used to keep three or four for himself.

In sentencing him, the court considered his clean criminal record, the fact that he had done a rehabilitation course and the positive change in his life and so jailed him for three years and fined him Lm1,000.

Inspectors Sandro Gatt and Neville Aquilina prosecuted.

Dr Kris Busietta appeared for Borg.