A man who was caught with four ecstasy pills in his shoe as he was queuing for a party in March 2013 has been jailed for three months following an eight-year criminal process.
The 42-year-old man, Sherlock Cachia, was stopped as he was entering a party at MFCC in Ta’ Qali on the night of March 31, 2013. He was found in possession of ecstasy pills and was charged with possession of the drug in circumstances denoting they were not for his personal use.
Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras heard police Inspector Johann Fenech testify that it was a one-off case and that the accused had no other drug-related convictions on his criminal record, which only contained traffic violations. The last conviction was dated 2003 so the court ruled the accused should benefit from a reduction in the punishment which should be kept to the minimum permissible at law.
The court heard how the police saw Cachia and a group of other people in the car park walking towards the party. Police constable Christopher Bartolo testified that they were acting in a suspicious manner, so they followed them to the queue and stopped them after they made it through security.
The man could have refused but he did not
Inspector Ryan Caruana testified that they had spent some time observing the accused because he seemed suspicious and stopped him as he was entering the venue. He said the accused looked very agitated. Before he was searched, he was asked whether he was carrying anything, to which he replied in the negative.
They searched him and found nothing but as he was about to leave, they asked him to remove his shoes. The man argued that there was no need for that but when they insisted, the police found a white bag containing four blue tablets inside one of his shoes.
The man told the police that he had given a lift to three women, Jocelin, Svettie and her cousin who he had met through Facebook. He said that as he was driving through Rabat, Jocelin asked him to stop and wait for her till she spoke to someone. He saw her speaking to this person and when she got back into the car he had asked whether they were carrying anything, to which they replied in the negative.
While they were queuing to get into the venue, he felt Jocelin put her hand in the pocket on the right side of his jacket, asking him to keep it for her as she was scared to take it in with her. He grabbed the bag and placed it in his shoe. Seconds later, he was stopped by the police and searched.
The women refused to testify in court for fear of incriminating themselves.
In her considerations, Magistrate Galea Sciberras noted that the accused had known that the bag contained an illicit substance, especially since the woman told him she was scared to take them in herself. The court said the man could have refused but he did not.
She therefore convicted him of aggravated possession and jailed him for three months and fined him €600.
The same punishment was meted out to Jean-Marc Dalli, the younger son of European Commissioner Helena Dalli who had been caught in possession of six pills. He was found guilty of drug trafficking after the court heard how he had purchased them for someone else.