The owner of a truck where the police found twenty blocks of cannabis resin fifteen years ago said in court on Tuesday that unknown people dumped all sorts of material in the vehicle.

“Garbage bags were sometimes dumped into the open box at the back,” John Xuereb said.

He was testifying at the trial by jury of his former employee, Jesmond Mary Vella, 47, known as il-Bulgaru, who stands accused of aggravated drug possession under circumstances denoting that the drug was not solely for personal use.

He also stands accused of relapsing.

The case dates back to 2008 when police monitoring Vella on the basis of suspicion of his involvement in drug activity, found a metal bucket-like container at the back of the truck he drove.

Beneath a bag of stale bread, they found 20 blocks of cannabis resin weighing almost 5 kilos with an 8.2% purity and a market value of €30,943.

The discovery was made on Triq in-Naggar, Mosta. Xuereb was the registered owner of the truck and a nearby garage which the police also searched, without finding anything suspicious.

Xuereb recalled that the Bedford truck had a red cabin and an open green box at the back.

He and Vella used that truck for construction work. Vella used to drive it because he found it too cumbersome.  They would unload their work tools in the evening, store them in a garage and return next morning.

Another worker, Pawlu, was occasionally roped in when an extra pair of hands were needed, but he never drove the truck.

At the time of the police search, the truck had been parked for about a month near the garage after having developed a fault. Xuereb said he had decided not to repair the truck and planned to scrap it.

Asked whether the truck could be locked, the witness was not too sure but said “I think so.”

The defence pointed out that he had told the police years ago that the truck could not be locked. Xuereb remarked, “I don’t know how long ago that was….I’m very forgetful.”

Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera intervened, reading out from the witness’s earlier testimony about how “all sorts of rubbish was dumped into it [the truck]…..We used to find rubbish….garbage bags…It was like a skip.”

“Do you confirm this today?”asked the judge.

“Yes,” replied the witness.

As for a speed boat and a smaller craft found inside the garage, Xuereb said that he owned both vessels.

“We used to go to Comino in that speedboat in summer,” he recalled, adding that the smaller craft was used to reach the speedboat.

A Transport Malta official testified that the Bedford truck was transferred to Xuereb on May 9, 2007 against payment of a fee of some Lm250.

The man referred to as “Pawlu,” who was occasionally roped in to work with Xuereb and Vella, also testified.

Asked about what happened 15 years ago, Spiteri said that that day he had stopped at the Mosta garage on his way to meet his brother after work.

Then suddenly he was arrested by police who told him that it was about “some drugs.”He was taken to police headquarters and interrogated.”

The police had told him about “some drugs,” but he had “no idea.”

Shown the picture of the Bedford truck on the courtroom screen, Spiteri could not identify the vehicle as the one used by Xuereb. 

The trial continues.

AG lawyers Kevin Valletta and Daniel Tabone are prosecuting.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri are defence counsel.