Sharing of chewing gum mistaken for ecstasy deal, lawyer claims

Friends insist they were 'sharing chewing gum' and not ecstasy

Two Serbian men were released on bail after being arraigned on drug charges this afternoon.

Friends Milan Panic and Nenad Bulovic, both aged 23, appeared before magistrate Doreen Clarke charged respectively with trafficking ecstasy and possession. 


Bulovic, a labourer living in St. Paul’s Bay was arrested in possession of what is suspected to be ecstasy during the early hours of Sunday morning.


Inspector Matthew Spagnol exhibited an evidence bag containing a pink pill, two mobile phones, €30 in cash and a lighter. He told the court that Bulovic and Panic had been arrested in Paceville at 3:00am.

When 

asked by defence lawyer Martin Fenech where the pill had been found, the inspector replied that it has been found on Bulovic.



Bulovic pleaded not guilty and requested bail, a request objected to by the prosecution due to the risk of absconding. 


Fenech, however, argued that the suspected ecstasy pill was actually chewing gum, pointing to the fact that Panic had released a statement saying that he had only handed the co-defendant a packet of chewing gum. 

Fenech, whilst praising the police for their work, warned against excessive zeal adding that “when you’re a trafficker, you don’t have just one pill, your honour.”



He insisted that his client hadn’t been found in possession of the pill but the police had found it in the street and confronted the suspects with it. 



But Inspector Spagnol, while confirming that the two accused had also claimed they had simply exchanged chewing gum, the two failed to agree on the flavor.

But Fenech swept this aside, saying that his clients had told him that the police had come up to them as they left an established in Paceville, shown them the pill and asked whether it belonged to them.



“With one pill, the courts generally do not even give a custodial sentence, so to be denied a fundamental human right to bail on an unproven offence is unfair on my client,” said Fenech. 



The accused had no reason to abscond when they knew that the punishment for possession of such a small amount is not even generally a prison sentence, he added.



The court upheld the request for bail, granting it against a deposit €200 and a personal guarantee of €2000, also ordering the men to sign a bail book three days a week and observe a curfew.