Drug suspect offered policeman €10,000 to dispose of evidence, court hears

A police sergeant has described how a man arrested with 39 sachets of drugs offered to pay him €10,000 to throw away the evidence

A police sergeant has described how a man arrested with 39 sachets of drugs offered to pay him €10,000 to throw away the evidence.

The sergeant described the arrest of Luke Grech to Magistrate Joe Mifsud. Grech had been observed acting suspiciously and had been stopped by the officer and his colleague.

When stopped by the officers, Grech had allegedly reacted aggressively, refused to answer questions and assaulted them.

A search of his vehicle recovered some 39 sachets of suspected cocaine and heroin as well as a significant amount of cash. 

Before the court this morning, the sergeant said that Grech had “told me to either throw away the drugs or half of them, and he’d pay €10,000.”

“He said, ‘you’re going to send me to prison, and I told him he was sending himself to prison.”

“Throw away half of them because I have another case, and you’re going to get me jailed,” the accused allegedly insisted, adding that his father would pass on the money to the officer.

In the dock, Grech shook his head vigorously and wiped his face several times as the officer testified.

A search of Grech’s house yielded a pipe and a crusher, suspected cocaine and heroin, mobile phones and SIM cards, as well as weighing scales and bags.

The sergeant also exhibited a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, which the accused had allegedly broke, together with a police issue jumper with a hole ripped in it. Both items were damaged during the man’s arrest, said the officer.

Grech is facing a lengthy list of charges which include possession of the drugs under circumstances indicating that they were not solely for personal use, threatening and insulting the two officers, slightly injuring them, violently resisting arrest, attempting to bribe them as well as voluntarily damaging third party property. 

The man was further charged with breaching the peace, breaching a previous bail decree as well as recidivism. 

The case continues in June.

Inspector Clayton Camilleri prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.