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Zeppi
l-Hafi says he wanted to become rich like Meinrad
Ray
Abdilla
Joseph Fenech wanted to become rich like Meinrad Calleja. He said
that could have happened if the police did not catch him. But today
he repented and believes that it was an act of goodwill by God that
he was caught because he is against drugs.
He also said that at the time he had a loan of Lm2,000 which he
had to pay and that is why he was eager to take part in the deal
which meant a profit of around Lm3,000.
Fenech, better known as Zeppi l-Hafi, was again on the witness stand.
He said he had made arrangements with Sultana, it-Tazz, for Sultana
to buy a kilogramme of 86 per cent pure cocaine for Lm22,500, out
of which Calleja was going to get Lm14,000 or Lm15,000.
Fenech said that today he is more mature and having kids it was
a blessing in disguise that the police caught him.
Calleja, 39, is pleading not guilty to the possession and trafficking
of cocaine before November 1993 and two counts of conspiracy to
traffic drugs.
The prosecution is claiming Calleja, his sister Clarissa Cachia
and Fenech agreed to go into the drug business some time in 1993.
The agreement was that Calleja and Cachia would provide the drugs
while Fenech would find buyers.
Towards the end of November 1993, Calleja gave his sister a sealed
sachet containing almost one kilogramme of cocaine which she was
to hand over to Fenech or people indicated by Fenech for an agreed
price.
On December 1, 1993 at about 3 pm. Cachia and Fenech met in Sliema.
She joined him in a rented car and they drove off, planning to conclude
the deal on the cocaine Cachia was carrying with her but police
thwarted the plan.
So good was the business according to the witness that Meinrad Calleja
had told him that this operation could have been done once every
fortnight.
In fact, Zeppi l-Hafi said that the accused had told him to hire
a car every 15 days for such drug deals.
In a second count of conspiracy, the prosecution is claiming that
Calleja had a separate agreement with Charles Muscat, known as il-Pips,
and Raymond Debono to traffic drugs.
The plan was that Calleja would import six kilogrammes of cocaine,
a kilogramme at a time, to sell to Muscat for Lm14,000 to Lm15,000
a kilogramme.
He confirmed that Leli t-Tazz was planning to buy the kilogramme
of cocaine off Meinrad Calleja was standing on a bus stop in St
Julian's within sight of police arresting Joseph Fenech and Calleja's
sister Clarissa Cachia, Fenech.
Asked by the defence why Leli t-Tazz did not go himself to Meinrad
Calleja to buy the drugs as he would have bought them cheaper as
no third parties were to be involved, Zeppi l-Hafi said that Leli
t-Tazz did not know who was Meinrad Calleja although he had heard
of him.
"Even if he knew Meinrad he would have not have gone to buy
drugs from another dealer. Drug dealers are afraid of each other,
they hate each other and they do not stand by each other,"
Fenech said of Emmanuel Sultana (Leli t-Tazz).
Fenech explained how he met Clarissa Cachia and they drove to St
Julian's until police stopped them.
He said that Meinrad Calleja called him on his mobile phone from
the UK just before they drove under the tunnels on Regional Road.
"He asked me if everything was okay and I told him that we
were still on our way. I told him to hang up because we were going
through the tunnels."
He said he thought Calleja's wife Roberta called him first, when
he was still at Spinola. In any case, both called him within minutes
of each other.
Under cross-examination he was later asked whether he was trying
to change his version regarding the money being made out of the
deal as Zeppi l-Hafi said he could have made more money, to which
he replied: "No, of course not, I could have made more money
because Meinrad could have given me Lm4,000 instead of Lm3,000.
"In fact I also used to borrow money from Meinrad and that
because I was a gambler. Sometimes I used to borrow Lm 2,000, Lm3,000
or Lm5,000 out of him. When I used to go and hand him some of the
money, Meinrad used to tell me – ‘I do not want the Lm1,000
you still own me.'"
Fenech said they referred to the drugs as a Mercedes because it
was considered the finest car and the drug was the best quality.
The reference to 1986 as the car manufacture date was in reference
to the purity of the drug, which was 86 per cent.
The references to others in the tape were in reality references
to Sultana whom he referred to in the plural to throw Calleja off
the scent.
He said that he was not sure whether the final destination of the
drugs rested with Sultana because Sultana sometimes told him the
drugs were for him and at other times claimed he had other buyers
for it.
Fenech said Sultana was prepared to buy the kilogramme of cocaine
on condition it was pure. Sultana had some three or four kilogrammes
in his possession but it was not of good enough quality for his
buyer, Fenech said.
"I never told Meini who the drugs were for. I did not tell
either him or Sultana about the other."
The plan was that the drugs would go for Lm22,500 but Calleja's
share was about Lm14,000 or Lm15,000.
Under cross-examination, Fenech was confronted with the fact that
he had said he was going to make Lm7,000 when he testified in the
compilation of evidence.
He said he might have been going to make that much but then Sultana
had wanted a cut for passing the drugs onto another buyer. He said
he was ultimately only going to make Lm3,000 according to his calculations.
Fenech said he owed Lm2,000 to Robert Zammit who had lent him Lm3,000
in 1991. They had been friends although they fell out over this
loan because although he managed to return Lm1,000 within six months,
he never paid him the rest.
Under cross-examination, Fenech was confronted with the fact that
he wanted to make money out of drugs. He said he had never wanted
to do with drugs although Leli t-Tazz had been telling him for ages
to start dealing with drugs.
"I remember being at his restaurant in Salini when Leli t-Tazz
told me, the recession is killing me at the moment, No business
and nothing much to make decent money. He then showed me a briefcase
with around Lm60,000 packed in and told him this is how to make
good money," said Joseph Fenech.
Fenech said he still was not sure whether Sultana was truly going
to pass on the drugs to another buyer and retain a commission or
whether he claimed he had a buyer so that he would get a better
deal on the drugs.
He said Calleja was only interested in getting the money for the
drugs and making sure that Fenech would not give his identity away.
He explained that he planned to meet Sultana under the Regional
Road bridge and "if you had not been so hasty, you would have
got the man for whom the drugs were meant".
Sultana was meant to be in his car near the petrol station and when
police stopped them, he saw him on the bus stop and shook his head
to try and signal to him to leave.
Fenech said Cachia must have known she was carrying drugs because
she was meant to open the package in front of the buyer and let
him try it or give him a sample for him to try. Sultana would only
pay up if he ascertained the drug was of good quality.
Under cross-examination, he was asked why he was so sure Cachia
knew she was carrying drugs because he had told the Magistrates'
Court that it was Sultana who was to go off with the package to
try it and come back with the money.
"Look, this is a detail. Maybe Sultana did not want to do anything
in front of a woman. I don't know. I just know that the plan was
that he would try it before he paid up. In any case, the drugs were
for him.
Regarding the drugs, Zeppi l-Hafi said that as far as he knows Meinrad
gave the packet to his sister Clarissa at their father's house.
Fenech, said that after this incident and after he was given the
Presidential pardon his family was intimidate and his daughter was
also beaten up. He said that he never wanted the presidential pardon
and now and before he had always testified the truth because he
does not want to save or drown anyone.
He said the main thrust of his story was still the same, that Calleja
had drugs and Sultana was willing to buy them and he could have
mixed up the details.
"If the whole story was written down before me, I would probably
still mix up a few things. If you like, I could be locked up for
a week somewhere and try to remember all the details. I can say
all I know.
One day I will write a book on the whole affair. Sometimes I say
some things and at other times I say other things. It all depends
on what I'm asked. But I am always telling the truth."
Fenech said again that he had never personally seen drugs in 46
years and the biggest mistake he ever made was to get mixed up in
this deal.
"I could tell you, behind closed doors, how much I have helped
the police since this case. I'm no angel walking on earth but I
can swear on my children's lives that I never had anything to do
with drugs."
Earlier, Fenech explained how he used to spend quite some time at
the Sabina Holiday Complex which at the time was run by a friend
of his, Joe Schembri. He said he met Sultana there because Sultana
ran the restaurant at the complex.
Schembri used to pay him about Lm60 a week for being there, doing
different things and sometimes just being there when Schembri had
to go out.
Later in the day police experts testified about Ciro Del Negro's
presence in Malta, saying that since the 21 May, 1996 he never came
back, legally at least.
Investigations were also made on a company which was owned by Meinrad
Calleja names Interfax. This only had a balance of Lm3.02. Regarding
a box which was in the safe at the Lombard Bank in Sliema, it was
revealed that Meinrad has in possession four foreign bank books
which were empty.
Deputy Attorney General Dr Silvio Camilleri is prosecuting.
Dr Emmanuel Mallia and Dr Ramona Frendo are appearing for the defendant.
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