Man pleads not guilty to possessing 1.5kg of cocaine

Wilhelm Hendriks, 54, from the Netherlands and living in St Paul’s Bay was arraigned in court before Magistrate Neville Camilleri on accusations of being in possession of cocaine and cannabis, with the former being found in circumstances denoting that the drug was not for his personal use.

Hendriks, who works in iGaming and has lived in Malta with his wife and two children for the past five years, submitted a not guilty plea.

The court heard how, after having received confidential information that the accused was dealing in drugs, two police officers were assigned to carry out observations on the accused on 4 June.

The police later spotted Hendriks as he was riding his motorcycle and carrying a black bag, stopped him, and carried out a search of the bag’s contents, resulting in the discovery of three blocks of a white substance suspected to be cocaine. The accused’s passport was also in the bag. 

The weight of the three blocks was of around 1kg, the prosecution told the court. It said that the police then searched the accused’s apartments, where they found another block of white substance thought to be cocaine, together with a small white sachet of cocaine, two plastic containers containing the drug, and €3,000 in cash. 

Cannabis and cannabis-related paraphernalia were also found, with the accused confirming to the police that he had been smoking the drug for decades. 

The accused pleaded not guilty, but reserved his right to change his plea in due course.

After it considered the defence’s objection to the prosecution’s request for bail, on the grounds that the accused’s wife and his daughter were civil witnesses to the case and still had to testify, the court denied bail, remanded the man in custody and ordered the freezing of his assets.

The defence requested the prohibition of the publication of the man’s name - arguing that the name was uncommon in Malta, and that the man had a young child who went school on the island – but the court also denied this, saying the reasons given were not valid at law.