A man with addiction problems who is well-known to the court found himself back in court on Thursday, facing fresh cocaine and heroin possession charges.

Jason Zammit, known as il-Pajsu, was charged with cocaine and heroin possession in an amount that indicated that was not for his personal use, drug trafficking, criminal association, misuse of electronic equipment, recidivism and breaching bail conditions.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Police Inspector Francesco Mizzi told the court that police received an anonymous tip that a property in Gzira was potentially being used to traffick drugs.

Officers obtained an arrest warrant and entered the flat at 7.45am on Thursday morning.

There they found the accused asleep in one of the beds and a white substance, suspected to be cocaine, spread on the bedside table.

Police found some 60 grams of cocaine and 6 grams of heroin which were divided into seperate packages. They also found other items connected to drug trafficking, including a weighing scale.

The prosecution objected to a request for bail, saying that there was a fear the accused could tamper with evidence and a significant chance he would commit another offence given his dependence on drugs and his long criminal record.

It was noted that the 49-year-old had a criminal record related to drug offences dating back to 1998 and was accused of breaching bail conditions that had only been handed to him a month ago.

Defence lawyer Franco Debono said that the amounts Zammit was being accused with made him eligible for drug court and was ready to submit himself to any conditions imposed on him by the court, including bail supervision.

The man knows he has a problem, Debono said, and would like to seek help in order to tackle it.

He also pointed out that the civilian witnesses still to testify were not known to the accused and there was little risk of tampering.

The prosecution countered this by saying that the court had given him several opportunities to change his life around over the years, but he had never availed himself of them and unless he was willing to change his lifestyle there was no chance of things changing for him.

“This is why we are objecting because while being in prison is not nice, he needs to go and find help so that he can actually reform himself,” Mizzi said.

After deliberating the court, presided over by Magistrate Nadine Sant Lia, ruled that at this stage, unless Zammit tackled his drug problem, it could not find him trustworthy and had no confidence that he was capable of abiding by any conditions imposed by the court. She therefore denied the bail request and he was remanded into custody.

Police Inspector Francesco Zammit and AG lawyer Julian Scicluna prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Matthew Xuereb appeared for the accused.