Fined Lm800 for heroin possession

Two brothers were yesterday fined Lm800 between them for the possession of heroin.

Otis Cassar, 27, of Zabbar and Emanuel Cassar, 25, of Valletta were found guilty of drug possession on and before January 6, 2000 and relapsing.

They were also put on probation for three years after Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how police were tipped off by Otis Cassar's former girlfriend, Lilian Borg, who told police her boyfriend injected himself with heroin even in front of the children.

The Cassar brothers, who were originally charged with the possession of heroin in circumstances denoting it was not for their personal use, admitted they took heroin but not that they sold it.

Emanuel Cassar said he had been injecting drugs for about six or seven months while Otis Cassar said he had been taking drugs for about 12 years.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera however did not find the Cassar brothers guilty of the possession of drugs for sale, ruling that considering Otis Cassar took drugs every day, the 12 grammes found at his apartment were not indicative of trafficking.

She also ruled that Borg would have told on Cassar had she known anything about him selling drugs, in the state she was in when she phoned the police.

Police Inspectors Neville Aquilina and Sandro Gatt prosecuted.