Sicilians charged after police find 2.5kg of cannabis on ferry

Three persons have appeared in court in connection with the recent discovery by the police Drug Squad of 2.5kg of cannabis in a car arriving on a ferry from Sicily.



The two men and one woman; Marco Fede, 28, Francesco Micca, 39, and a heavily pregnant Sarah Tuccitto, 25, appeared in the dock before magistrate Aaron Bugeja this morning. The trio was accused of the importation and possession of 2.5 kg of cannabis and conspiring to traffic the drug in days leading up to their arrest on 1 February. All three denied the charges.

Inspector Gabriel Micallef did not elaborate on what led to the arrest, but an official statement released by the police yesterday, credited the Police Dog Section with assisting in the operation.

Defence lawyer Roberto Montaldo entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the accused, but advised the court that this could change as he was informed that there had been an extra-judicial confession by one of the co-accused that exculpated the other two.

He informed the court that he would not be requesting bail at this stage as the Sicilians had no fixed address in Malta as they had not intended to spend long here. He reserved the right to make a request for release at a later stage.

As happens in all cases of suspected drug trafficking, the Court ordered the freezing of all the assets belonging to the accused.