Man caught in Paceville with drug sachets gets a second chance
10 years after his arrest, man who has turned his life around given probation order
A 26-year-old man who risked jail time after he was caught in a Paceville toilet with sachets of drugs 10 years ago has been given a lifeline by a court.
The accused was 16 years old when he was caught in October 2015 with 1.95 grams of a light brown powder, divided into 12 different bags.
He was subsequently charged with cocaine trafficking and aggravated possession of a psychotropic substance. He pleaded not guilty.
But drug testing later concluded that the powder he had was Alpha-pvp, better known by its street name Flakka, and not cocaine as prosecutors had alleged.
The court therefore cleared him of the cocaine charges.
It noted that while the amount of drugs he was caught with was fairly small, it was evident that he intended to sell the drugs to others. The fact that he was in Paceville and the drugs were divided into separate bags made it clear the drugs were not for his personal use, the court said.
The court however took note of the man’s work to attend a drug rehabilitation course and said he had made an effort to achieve stability in life in recent years.
It therefore found him guilty of possessing a psychotropic drug in circumstances denoting it was not for his personal use, but spared him jail time and instead issued a three-year probation order against him.
The prosecution was led by Inspector Gabriel Micallef. The defence was led by lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri.