Woman cleared over CCF duvet drug stash

A court has cleared a woman from Cospicua who was charged with smuggling heroin to her former partner, in prison, by hiding it in a duvet.

57 year-old Maria Grech consistently denied having known that that the quilt, given to her by her partner’s mother, contained the drug.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras was told how the drugs had been discovered in the quilt by a sniffer dog after prison warders realised that the seams on part of the quilt, where the drugs had been concealed, looked different from the rest.

Grech testified to how on 22 December 2006, the mother had asked her to deliver several mundane items to her son Alan Grima, claiming that her husband was having car trouble.

Grima admitted handing Grech the quilt but had denied hiding anything in it and denied knowledge of the hidden drug stash.

Grech likewise told the court she was not aware that the drugs had been sewed onto the inside of the quilt. She had ended her relationship the imprisoned Grima after she, too, had been jailed for committing theft in order to fund his addiction. Suspicions were raised when prisoners became unusually interested in taking delivery of this quilt, leading the authorities to take a closer look.

However, after the court was told how Grech had picked up the quilt at 9.30am and arrived at the prison gates at 10am, it cleared Grech of all charges, holding that there was no time for her to hide the drugs and sew the quilt back together, the magistrate noting that Grech had never changed her story, denying all knowledge of the hidden heroin.

Lawyers Ludvic Caruana and Annalisa Debono defended Grima. Assistant Commissioner Dennis Theuma prosecuted.