Man remanded in custody after found with 7g of synthetic cannabis

A man caught carrying 49 sachets of synthetic cannabis in Marsa has been remanded in custody.

Ahmed Omer Hassan Musoud, 28, from Sudan was arrested on September 12 in Triq is-Salib tal-Marsa carrying a total of 7 grams of what police say is synthetic cannabis. The amount of drugs was distributed across 49 small sachets, police said.

Musoud was charged with possession of the psychoactive substances in circumstances which indicated that they were not exclusively intended for his personal consumption.

The charge was further aggravated by the fact that he had been in possession of the drugs within 100 metres of a place where young people habitually gathered.

Police Inspector Mark Cremona told magistrate Rachel Montebello that officers on patrol in the area had observed the defendant acting suspiciously. They had followed him and eventually stopped the man, finding 49 sachets of an unknown substance as well as cash. 

A magisterial inquiry was appointed during which the substance was identified as synthetic cannabis by a court-appointed expert.

Lawyer Martin Farrugia was appointed as legal aid counsel to the defendant.

He told the court that the man was pleading not guilty to the charges. Farrugia requested bail, pointing out that Musoud had a clean criminal record.

Objected to as no fixed address and lived at a friend’s house. There was no risk of tampering with evidence but the man had no source of income. “He told us that he worked in construction, but gave us nothing to prove it.”

Farrugia retorted that the reasons to refuse bail were listed in the law and none of those reasons seem to appear here.

“It is not proportional or necessary to delve into his working and housing arrangements,”

The court, however, said it was not satisfied that the defendant would be traceable for the purposes of being served with summons for future sittings. Bail was denied.