A father and his two teenage sons were escorted to jail on Friday after being denied bail over their alleged involvement in a drug bust of over 100 sachets containing different drugs.

The 39-year-old father and his two sons, aged 19 and 17, were stopped by the police in Cospicua who were acting on a report by community police officers about potential drug trafficking taking place in the village square.

Police Inspectors Alfredo Mangion and Mark Cremona explained that after the Drugs Squad and the Community Police had received these reports, an arrest warrant was obtained and the 39-year-old was stopped yesterday while driving his Toyota Vitz, in the company of his two teenage sons.

During a search, the police found some 80 sachets containing a substance suspected to be cocaine, together with 16 sachets of suspected heroin and five bags of suspected cannabis.

All three were arrested and arraigned in court on Friday where they pleaded not guilty to aggravated drug possession.

The court imposed a ban on the publication of their names since the youngest defendant is only 17 years old and therefore still a minor.

They denied possession of the substances in circumstances indicating they were not solely for their personal consumption.

Inspector Mangion objected to a request for bail, arguing that almost 100 sachets of drugs had been seized by the police.

He said these were ready packaged and clearly intended for sale to other drug victims, with all the harm that this caused to them and their families.

He said there was a strong risk of further crimes being committed should the defendants be released from arrest.

Lawyer Franco Debono, assisting the defendants together with lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Mark Mifsud Cutajar, argued that despite the number of sachets found by the police, the three were not charged with drug trafficking but with aggravated possession.

The total weight of the drugs was around 20 grams, Debono said, adding that the intention behind the Drug (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act was to recommend treatment instead of imprisonment.

Mifsud Cutajar pointed out that the arrest warrant had only been obtained for the father’s arrest and that his sons just “happened to be in the car with him.”

Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi submitted that the prosecution’s arguments were trying to instil “a fear of the bogeyman,” by referring to possible future crimes.

Any potential risk must be substantiated with relevant evidence, he insisted.

The court, however, denied bail at this stage, ruling that it felt the defendants did not provide the court with peace of mind that they could respect the bail conditions, one of which was that of not committing other crimes while on bail.

They were therefore remanded in custody.