A Nigerian national, who pleaded guilty to having nine years ago conspired and participated in a drug trafficking ring, was condemned to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of €25,000 today after choosing to have his case tried by a criminal court without a jury.
Ferdinand Onovo had been arrested after a police surveillance operation.
Madame Justice Edwina Grima, heard how on February 1, 2008 two men had been caught by airport security trying to smuggle some 5,716g of cocaine of 53% purity from Tripoli. The drug was estimated to have a street value between €403,305 and €593,434.
Following their arrest, the men agreed to collaborate in a controlled delivery operation which eventually led the authorities to the accused. The latter had been instructed by a Netherlands resident called Chukwudu Samuel Onyeabor known as 'Nokia', to meet a 'foreign white male' at a Sliema Hotel to take delivery of a drug-containing bag.
Mr Onovo was arrested just as the 'white male', was about to place the decoy bag on the back seat of the accused car just outside the Sliema hotel.
Following this second arrest, the police obtained Mr Onovo's collaboration to catch the final consignee of the imported drugs, namely Mr Onyeabor.
The court heard how the accused had called Mr Onyeabor and urged him to come over from the Netherlands so as to take his drug consignment.
On the evening of February 4, 2008 Mr Onyeabor travelled to Malta from Brussels and was arrested inside a Sliema hotel room in the presence of the accused who had just handed over to him a decoy parcel according to police instructions.
By means of this coordinated activity, the authorities had managed to break up a drug trafficking racket which involved the importation of drugs from Benin, onto Libya and then through to Malta.
The drugs had been intended for trafficking in Malta and also for export to Norway.
Details of this illegal activity had been hatched during a meeting between the accused and Mr Onyeabor in December 2007 at the Luxol Grounds, St Andrews.
After taking note of the accused's guilty plea, the court condemned him to a jail term of 10 years and to a fine of €25,000. It also ordered Mr Onovo to foot court expert expenses amounting to €3397. Furthermore, the court ordered the confiscation of all property, movable and immovable, of the accused, as well as the destruction of the dangerous drugs.