A man, arrested on Saturday morning after being spotted by community police handing over suspicious packets to a third party, pleaded not guilty to drug charges on Sunday.
Massimo Grixti, a 33-year-old Valletta resident, was approached by two police officers who were patrolling in Triq il-Ħġejjeġ, St Paul’s Bay, at 8.25am when they saw the man passing on some packets to a third party.
Acting upon a reasonable suspicion that underhand drug activity, the officers stopped the man and asked for his personal details.
He handed over his ID card but fled on being told that he would be searched.
The officers gave chase, catching up with him some streets away in Triq iċ-Ċern where a personal search of the suspect yielded 51 sachets of cocaine and 33 sachets of heroin. The drugs were inside his bag.
He was arrested and escorted to court on Sunday, pleading not guilty to possessing the drugs in circumstances indicating that they were not intended solely for personal use and disobeying legitimate orders.
He was further charged with violently resisting police arrest, insulting and threatening an officer as well as slightly injuring him.
The man’s lawyers, Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb, requested bail, arguing that the amount of drugs involved had not yet been quantified and this could turn out to be a small amount.
When releasing his statement, the accused admitted that he had a drug problem.
According to the Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Ac, if the accused is found guilty and has a drug problem, he is not given a prison sentence.
In this case, there were no circumstances that excluded the accused from having his case tried before the Drugs Court, argued the defence, pointing out that no large amounts of drugs were involved.
However, the prosecution rebutted that the sachets found in the accused’s possession could easily have been handed out to a number of people.
After hearing submissions, the court, presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, declared that it would deliver a decree in chambers. It later said that bail was being denied.
Inspector Ryan Vella prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.