Zejtun man charged with possession of two kilogrammes cocaine, laundering €84,000

A 32-year old-man from Żejtun was denied bail this afternoon after he was charged with laundering €84,000 of drug money, as well as possession of 2kg of cocaine.

Inspector Alfredo Zammit told Magistrate Elaine Mercieca that the accused, Ian Zammit, had tried to dispose of more drugs by pouring them down the sink at his house before the police arrived.

The inspector told the court that Zammit was arrested on 3 November, after an investigation into Zammit and others.

Mangion said that officers from the Drugs Squad had raided Zammit’s house and found items related to drugs. Similar items were found in his car, which was in a half-built garage. Inside those premises, the police also found a pouch containing the sum of €84,000.

Inspector Mangion, who is prosecuting together with Inspector Oriana Spiteri arraigned Zammit after interrogating him for two days and then granting him police bail.

He said that the police had released the accused at around 5:30pm.

Mangion’s lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri asked whether their client had obeyed the conditions of police bail, with the inspector replying in the affirmative and reporting no problems.

Debono questioned why Zammit had been arraigned under arrest and not by summons, asking how the police would decide to arraign and noted that there were no guidelines.

When the inspector opposed the defence’s bail request, Debono commented that the police first release suspects on police bail and then tell the court not to grant them bail.

After the court was told that the testimony and evidence had been collected and preserved in the magisterial inquiry into this case, the Prosecution said that there were other witnesses who hadn’t testified in the inquiry.

Debono decried this as a prosecution tactic to deny the possibility of bail.

Lawyer Andrea Zammit from the Office of the Attorney General also strongly opposed the bail request, citing the fear of contamination of evidence and pointing out that just a month and a half before, the accused had breached other bail conditions.

The AG lawyer informed the court that Zammit had already tried to destroy evidence by pouring it down the sink and hiding the keys to the car, which he initially claimed to have sold.

Debono picked up on this, arguing that the inspector was saying that Zammit had obeyed his bail conditions, whilst the AG was saying that the man wasn’t trustworthy enough for bail.

The court, however opted to deny bail at this stage.

A freezing order was imposed over all the accused’s assets.