Four blocks of cannabis resin wrapped inside a Ludo box mailed to a Sliema address landed a Spanish youth in custody upon arraignment on Tuesday afternoon.

David Jimenez Madrigal, a 22-year-old man working in a family business in Spain, was arrested on Monday after turning up at the unscheduled postal services offices at Luqa where the suspicious parcel had arrived just over a month ago. 

The parcel, detected by customs officials on September 19, was addressed to a Spanish person at a Sliema address but it later turned out that the name of the addressee was false and the address corresponded to an abandoned property, said prosecuting Inspector Marshal Mallia. 

When on Monday the youth claimed the parcel, quoting its tracking number, police moved in and arrested the suspect who was on Tuesday charged with unlawful importation of cannabis resin. 

The accused pleaded not guilty to importing 400 grams of the drug. 

A request for bail was objected to not only because the case involved importation of an illicit substance that appeared not to be for personal use, but also because the accused did not cooperate. 

He had failed to supply a fixed address but instead led investigators to two addresses. 

Third parties at one of those addresses told police that they had never seen the accused before. 

The second address was at an apartment block where the accused could not point out the apartment where he supposedly lived. 

His attitude made him untrustworthy, argued the prosecutor.

The accused later insisted that he had not supplied the tracking number but his name when going to retrieve the parcel. 

The prosecutor did not rule out that third parties could be investigated in relation to this case. 

Defence lawyer Franco Debono stressed the presumption of innocence. 

There might have been some misunderstanding and, at the arraignment, the accused had provided a Sliema address. 

Moreover, it was rather “ironic” that although cannabis was legalised, the State had not provided for licensed outlets where the drug could be acquired. 

On Tuesday, the first licences were issued to two outlets, remarked Debono. 

But the prosecution rebutted that this case involved cannabis resin which was illegal across the board and moreover, the accused had only provided a “partial address” naming the Sliema street but not the number.

After hearing submissions, the court, presided over by Magistrate Lara Lanfranco, turned down the request since the accused had provided no fixed address and was a foreigner, which increased the risk of absconding.

The accused was not deemed to be in a position to abide by court conditions if granted bail. 

Lawyer Francesca Zarb was also defence counsel.