A Sicilian man convicted of organised crime and cocaine trafficking in Italy was hauled to court on Friday as the Italian authorities seek to extradite him to serve a pending prison sentence. 

Gianluca Caruso, 32, is facing time behind bars in his home country since in 2020 he was convicted in absentia of trafficking marijuana and cocaine while also forming part of a criminal organisation. 

He was sentenced to an effective prison term of seven years and two months by the Catania Court of Appeal. Caruso would only be required to serve six years and nine months, with his time spent in pre-trial custody deducted from the sentence. 

Police inspector Roderick Spiteri told court he arrested Caruso on May 16 after an alert through the Schengen Information System related to a European Arrest Warrant that had been issued seeking out the Sicilian to serve his sentence. 

However, the defence argued that at the time of arrest, the sentence upon which the EAW had been issued was not yet made available to the police and therefore they did not have a legitimate basis on which to execute the arrest. 

While deliberating on the validity of the arrest, magistrate Joseph Gatt said he would be abstaining from making a decision. He felt that the arguments made by both parties about the validity of the arrest were too intrinsically connected to the validity of the EAW itself. 

He said it was not in the court’s competence to decide at this stage, although he told the defence they were free to bring the same arguments in front of the court that will be hearing the merits of the case. 

Magistrate Gatt also expressed concern that a representative from the Attorney General’s Office had not been part of the proceedings.

Adding that the comment was in no way a criticism of the inspector’s handling of the case, given the detailed legal nature of the proceedings, their absence was conspicuous, he said. 

Caruso has job, house in Malta

The court heard how Caruso, who appeared in court with his pregnant partner, had been living in Malta for many years and had a job and a house in the country. 

He will remain in custody until the case is appointed to another magistrate to be decided on merit. 

Three years ago, Italian media reported that the authorities had gone about dismantling two drug dealing centres in the San Berillo Nuovo district of Catania.

They had arrested 40 people on suspicion of drug dealing and trafficking, aggravated by the fact that these activities had allegedly been aimed at enriching the Cappello-Bonaccorsi mafia family. 

It is understood that during this operation, Caruso had turned himself in at the Vincenzo Bellini airport in Catania. 

He allegedly sold drugs out of a public square in Catania and is said to have come to Malta while he was out on bail.

Lawyers Jacob Magri and Charles Mercieca appeared for Caruso.