Retrial of Gozo drugs case confirms guilt, reforms sentence

The retrial of a Gozitan man, as ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal, has once again resulted in his conviction for drug offences.

29-year-old Kevin Vella was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for three years after a retrial found him guilty of trafficking and possession of cocaine and ecstasy ten years ago.

Vella had been arrested in June 2013 after CID police officers spotted him carrying the motionless body of his girlfriend, Zael Vella uphill after leaving a party at Mgarr ix-Xini.

As the officers approached him, Vella immediately refused their offer of assistance and rushed to the driver’s seat of his car while pulling out a plastic bag from his shorts. The police stopped him from throwing the bag into a nearby field and recovered the bag of white powder, which was found to contain nine small sachets of cocaine.

Although Vella had denied having any involvement in the drugs trade, his girlfriend Zael had testified to having been given free drugs by her boyfriend.

Four years later, Vella was found guilty and jailed for 18 months, also being fined €1,000. 

But in 2021, the Court of Criminal Appeal struck down the judgement, ordering it to be sent back to the court of magistrates to be heard again.

That case has now been decided by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, who observed that in the intervening years, the accused had changed his ways, held down a job and appeared to have put his criminal past behind him. Vella had also consistently cooperated with the program of the Drug Offenders Rehabilitation Board, said the court.

In sentencing Vella, the magistrate took into account a report by a court-appointed medical expert, who had concluded that the defendant’s law-breaking was principally attributable to his drug abuse, which he had since stopped.

The court sentenced Vella to imprisonment for 18 months, suspended for three years. In terms of the Drug Dependence (Treatment not Imprisonment) Act, the court also ordered that this conviction be erased from his criminal record in three years’ time, unless he is convicted of other crimes during that time. 

Vella was also fined €2,000 and ordered to pay €747 in court costs, as well as being placed under a supervision order for two years.

Zael Vella had told the police during interrogation that she sometimes took drugs from her boyfriend but later, she retracted part of her statement where she had mentioned Chris ‘il-Barri’ Vella, Mark ‘iz-Zuzu’, Samuel Sillatto and George Attard, whom she said Kevin Vella would give free drugs to, claiming to have been hungover at the time she gave it. 

She had subsequently pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge and was sentenced to six months' probation.

The Court emphasised that 40 hours had passed between the time she left the party and interrogation, stressing that there was more than enough time to recover from any hang-over.

Finally, the court also ordered that a copy of the judgement be served on the Commissioner of Police to determine whether there were grounds for perjury charges against Zael Vella in view of the passage of time since the alleged offence.

Inspector Bernard Spiteri led the Prosecution.

Lawyer Joe Giglio was defence counsel.
The case had led to the opening of a government inquiry after MaltaToday reported that two Ministers at the time, Manwel Mallia and Anton Refalo, had met with relatives of the accused to discuss the case.

Both Gozo minister Anton Refalo and the home affairs minister at the time, Manuel Mallia, denied knowledge of the case and allegations of political involvement.

An inquiry, led by lawyer John Vassallo, launched at the request of prime minister Joseph Muscat, concluded no such interference took place. Vassallo – a former Labour candidate – made no reference to the testimonies of both Refalo and Mallia, who appeared before the board.

The Nationalist Party dubbed the conclusions a “farce,” describing the Vassallo inquiry a whitewash and accusing the government of a cover-up, arguing that the board had failed to call in the ministers’ drivers, the security detail, all police officers involved in the investigation and the then Gozo shadow minister Chris Said to testify.