Jail time for Sliema man convicted of heroin possession

A 44-year-old Sliema man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined €2,000 after he was found guilty of aggravated heroin possession.

Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia had heard prosecuting inspector Dennis Theuma explain how the police Drugs Squad had arrested Jason Abela in May of 2004, following a surveillance operation on his block of apartments.

Abela, 44, had been arrested as he was leaving the apartments with his young daughter. He had attempted to make a run for it upon noticing the police presence, discarding a number of banknotes in an attempt to avoid being caught with suspicious amounts of cash on his person. The money was recovered by police.

He was apprehended and found to have hidden three plastic sachets in a packet of cigarettes. The sachets were found to contain a brown powder, later found to be heroin. €894 in cash were also found on his person.

A subsequent search at his home recovered another sachet of brown powder, three mobile phones and a digital weighing scale.

He had told the court that he would consume between half a gram to one gram of heroin every day, injecting himself in his mother’s garage.

The court, however, was convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that the heroin was not for his exclusive use and sentenced him to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment and fined him €2000