Reformed heroin user gets light sentence for 2005 possession case

A 40-year-old Cospicua man, who had previously been jailed for causing his cousin’s death through a heroin overdose in 2005, was placed on probation for three years after he admitted to simple drug possession in a separate case.

John Mifsud, known as Johan, had been charged before Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, with simple possession of heroin as well as possession with intent to traffic the drug in 2005.

Assistant Police Commissioner Norbert Ciappara had told the court how police, acting on a tip-off, had raided a bar in Cospicua and arrested the man, who had been found to be carrying six 0.08 gram sachets of heroin. 

Mifsud’s lawyers, Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri, had not contested the simple possession charge, but had argued that their client was a regular drug user and that the heroin found was solely for his personal use.

The court, whilst finding him guilty of simple possession of heroin, cleared him of the possession with intent charge, pointing out that as the established average dose of heroin is 0.2 grams, Mifsud had effectively only been carrying two doses of the drug.  In addition, the court noted that no cash had been found on his person at the time of his arrest.

In her deliberations on punishment, Magistrate Farrugia noted that Mifsud had five previous convictions - a jury had jailed Mifsud for the involuntary homicide of his 32-year-old cousin, David Spiteri, in 2009. Spiteri had died after mixing heroin supplied by Mifsud and Spiteri’s own prescription tranquillisers.

But after it heard probation officer Ivan Falzon testify that Mifsud had overcome his drug addiction and found stable employment, the court held that it would be counterproductive to jail him at this stage and instead, placed Mifsud under a three-year probation order.