Hefty sentence for Colombian arrested with half a kilo cocaine

A Colombian drug mule has been jailed for eight years and fined €20,000, after he pleaded guilty to trafficking half a kilogramme of cocaine in order to avoid a trial by jury.

Alexander Restrepo Diaz had been arrested at the airport in August 2012, on his arrival from the Netherlands. A search found him to be carrying 52 capsules of cocaine in his underpants.

The court heard how Diaz had been promised €3,000 to deliver the cocaine from Eindhoven to Malta. During his arraignment, Police Inspector Johann Fenech had told the court that during the course of their investigations the police had found that Diaz had, in 2005, been arrested in Spain carrying 800 grams of cocaine, also in his underpants.

The accused had visited Malta three times, the first two of which had with been with his wife and two children. The Colombian had told the police that he had met a man on a beach and had been enticed by the prospect of making easy money by carrying the drugs from the Netherlands.

Diaz had travelled to Eindhoven from Malta, where he was handed the drug by two African men. He did not know the identity of his contact in Malta, also a Colombian national, having only been given a meeting time and place.

Although he had offered to carry out a controlled delivery, the police had felt the risks of carrying out a controlled delivery in Qawra, involving a person they knew nothing about, outweighed the potential benefits.

In a judgment, delivered yesterday, Madam Justice Edwina Grima noted that the punishment for drug trafficking is life imprisonment, adding however, that the law offers a reduction in punishment should the accused file an admission in an early stage of proceedings, thereby avoiding costly and lengthy jury proceedings.

Diaz was spared a lifetime of incarceration, instead being fined €20,000 and sentenced to imprisonment for eight years. He was also ordered to foot the bill for the appointment of court experts, which amounted to over €5,000.

As is customary with serious drug trafficking convictions, the court also ordered the forfeiture of all moveable and immovable property which previously belonged to the accused, in favour of the Government of Malta.