An 18-year-old found in possession of 125 sachets containing illicit substances in Marsa, where he was allegedly selling drugs from a motorbike, was granted bail on Tuesday.

However, since no person was available to step in and bind themselves under a €10,000 guarantee that the youth would not breach the bail conditions, the man was held in preventative custody. 

Josef Ebejer, from Birkirkara, was arrested on Sunday as the suspect riding a blue motorbike allegedly selling drugs in Marsa after the Ħamrun police received a tipoff at around 4.20pm.

Officers headed to the site and spotted a young man who fit the description. 

He was frisked by the officers and found in possession of a mobile phone and cash. 

When they searched his bike, the officers came across two sunglasses pockets containing sachets filled with different substances suspected of being drugs. 

There were 74 sachets containing a white substance, 25 sachets filled with a brownish substance and another 26 sachets with a greenish substance, prosecuting inspector Sarah Kathleen Zerafa told court.

The man, who said he had no job and was not a student, pleaded not guilty to possessing cocaine, heroin and a psychotropic drug under circumstances denoting that the drugs were not intended solely for personal use. 

He was also charged with breaching bail conditions granted in June. 

That was one of the reasons why the prosecution objected to a request for bail, arguing that the accused was not deemed sufficiently trustworthy. 

Moreover, the nature of the charges and the fact that a civilian witness was still to testify were further grounds for objecting to bail. 

However, defence lawyer Alfred Abela rebutted that that civilian witness was the owner of the motorbike and would likely choose not to testify, given that the alleged drugs were found inside that vehicle. 

The accused, who was just 18, was also presumed innocent even in so far as the alleged breach of bail was concerned. The gravity of the offence alone was not sufficient grounds to deny the accused bail, and besides, although the sachets allegedly totalled 125, the total amount of drugs was presumably not much, he added.

The accused was “near a motorbike inside which the suspected drugs were found”, argued the lawyer. 

“He was sitting on the bike and no one else was around,” clarified the inspector. 

Citing a judge who presides over the Criminal Court, the defence promptly countered that those were “simple conjectures which alone could not result in a finding of guilt”.

After hearing submissions, the court, presided over by Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, upheld the request for bail and issued a Temporary Supervision Order so that the youth would be closely monitored by a probation officer. 

The court also bound the accused to provide a third-party guarantor for the sum of €10,000 and imposed a number of other conditions, including signing the bail book twice a week and not communicating with prosecution witnesses in any manner.

The accused was also to follow all instructions given to him by the probation officer who would be monitoring him.

Since a third party was not immediately available to step in as guarantor, the youth was escorted back into preventive custody. 

Inspector Sarah Kathleen Zerafa prosecuted.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene’ Darmanin were defence counsel.