Stolen container of cigarettes left Freeport in lane for 'empties'

A court has heard how a shipping container full of cigarettes evaded inspection by leaving the Freeport using a lane by normally reserved for empty containers.

The compilation of evidence against a group of Freeport workers;stevedore Malcolm Zammit,  security officer Christopher Calleja, customs officer Sebastian Zammit and stevedore Roderick Borg, who are charged in connection with the theft of a shipping container holding 10.5 million cigarettes, valued at €304,500 began this afternoon. The men are accused of having defrauded the government out of €1.67 million in excise duty, €175,000 in importation duty and €386,000 in Value Added Tax - a combined figure of €2.23 million in lost revenue.

Stephen Calleja, Operations Manager at Freeport for the past ten years, testified first, explaining in reply to questions by Inspector Carlos Cordina the procedure by which Freeport stevedores used to identify containers destined for Malta and trans-shipment containers and stack them accordingly.

“Every operator would have a job list detailing which container he needs to load or unload. If the employee [in the case at issue] had not received the information, he had no reason to move the container.”

Clerks equipped with an inventory would check the stacks of containers to ensure that they were in the right place. “If an anomaly is noticed they will then rectify it.”

Calleja had been shown CCTV footage from the day.“From the CCTV, I had recognized the restacker to be restacker 67, and checked his record, which stated that he should have been elsewhere.”

The inspector asked who was driving the stacker. “Roderick Borg was recognised from his punch card number,” came the reply. The witness pointed out Borg in the courtroom.

“From the information available to me, there were no instructions for this container to leave the terminal.” Asked what the container’s contents were, he said they are not informed as they only deal with the containers themselves.

“The stacker loaded it onto a refrigerated truck, which stopped to let another truck pass and then followed it out of the terminal.” He explained that security guards normally check the contents of containers as they leave the facility “but this did not appear to have happened in this case.” He added that the truck took the exit lane usually used by those carrying empty containers.

Cross-examined by Sebastian Zammit’s lawyer, Roberto Montaldo, he said that he had not been informed as to who was to be on duty for the customs department, who are authorised to inspect containers at their discretion, be they imports or transhipments.

The witness said he did not know Zammit or that he was a customs officer.

“You mentioned lanes,” asked Montalto. The witness explained that there were lanes for entry and exit, adding that normally, the middle lanes were used by cars or empty containers “Therefore if you see a container in that lane, you would presume it is empty?,”asked the lawyer. The witness confirmed.

Answering a question as to whether it was normal for empty containers to be sealed, the operations manager said it wasn’t. “Normally it is the shipper who seals container, and if it is opened by customs, another seal is affixed.”

He could not tell from the CCTV that a container had a seal, which Montalto suggested.

Cross-examined by Malcolm Zammit’s lawyer Joe Giglio, the witness confirmed that entry and exit from the Freeport is documented and that there was no method for an employee to enter the terminal without registering for a pass and being picked up on CCTV.

“Therefore Malcolm Zammit was aware that he was being monitored on CCTV,”said the lawyer.

Another witness summoned by the prosecution, customs inspector Jerome Azzopardi, testified that as detail officer, he was responsible for maintaining leave and sick leave records and the allocation of work out of hours.

Asked about the incident involving Sebastian Zammit and Pierre Delicata, he said that on the date in question, he had asked Delicata to work together with another worker, but the other worker subsequently called in sick and so Zammit was called to fill in.

“I informed Delicata that Zammit was going to assist him. These two senior customs associates were therefore on duty on the day.” He recognized Zammit in the courtroom.

Pierre Delicata, who had been interrogated by the police in connection with the theft, also testified today.

He said he had been at work with Zammit. A container had left the Freeport and so Zammit had gone to check the container while he stayed in the office. The driver had given Zammit the papers after he had taken them back into the office for processing, he said.

Asked whether he had seen anything unusual that night, he said that in order to exit with an empty container, the driver would show a manifest to the person manning the gate, and if it was empty the container would be allowed to go ahead. If not empty, the container would be sent back.

“That day the container was not empty,” said the witness.

Delicata said that on occasion, empty containers could be sealed by the agent as a precaution against stowaways. “If a container has no seal, it means it is empty. The container in question was sealed.”

Zammit had given him the customs export documents, he said. “I had gone to the ground level to pick up the documents for a cargo container, at that time the other container, the ‘empty’ one had gone through lane three. Zammit had dealt with the empty container. It was not listed on the schedule.”

Asked if, on busy days, empty containers are simply not checked as this is a time consuming process, he replied that this would be “blasphemy” for customs.  “The empty containers must always be checked.”

 Bail was requested separately.

The court will deliver a decree on bail from chambers and will continue hearing witnesses on the 10 September.