Italian police chief says drug trafficking in Malta is ‘flourishing’

Italian police arrested at least five drug couriers who tried to smuggle drugs into Malta in recent months, with an Italian police chief claiming that “drug trafficking was flourishing” in Malta.

The couriers were attempting to enter Malta by travelling on the catamaran service between the two islands.

The latest arrest was made last week, when the police discovered around 3.5kg of marijuana stashed in a bag carried by a Nigerian national.

The man, Bashiru Bello, was arrested by the Italian police in collaboration with Pozzallo customs officers as he made his way onto the catamaran, which runs a daily service between the two islands.

The drugs were concealed in cellophane, which the 30-year-old man carried in a backpack which also contained incense sticks to mask the odour and elude any sniffer dogs he might encounter.

All drug couriers who have been arrested over the last three months are either Nigerian or Ivorian. According to the Italian press, the five men were trying to smuggle over 12kg of marijuana into Malta.

However, the men are believed to be mere pawns in a trafficking ring involving a criminal organisation operating in Sicily and central Italy.

In February, the provincial police chief Alessandro Cavalli addressed a press conference in Pozzallo in which he explained that large quantities of drugs were being transported through the Pozzallo-Malta route.

He put down the ease of couriers carrying drugs to Malta from Pozzallo down to the loose security controls at the Pozzallo harbour.

“One wonders, for example, why don’t these migrants, who start their voyage from Catania, travel from the port there? It’s simply down to having sticter controls in Catania. Here in Pozzallo, Customs is closed in the evenings, creating a peculiar situation,” Cavalli said, pointing out that Pozzallo was a strategic port for drug traffickers.

Adding that large drug finds were made in recent months, Cavalli claimed that Italian police was “facing a privileged route towards Malta, where drug trafficking is flourishing.”

During the past months, the Malta Police Drugs Squad effected arrests and charged in court foreign nationals suspected of involvement in the trafficking of cannabis grass and cocaine, the smuggling of which is suspected to be through the Sicily-Malta route by ferry service. 

Speaking to MaltaToday, a police spokesperson said: “Naturally, the Police and Customs carry out regular coordinated interdictions and inspections at all points of entry, including the seaport, in line with treaties and other obligations regulating port controls.”

However, asked whether the police had strengthened surveillance at the Marsa port where the catamaran passengers land, the spokesperson said that it would be inappropriate to comment further on operational and other matters “since sensitive investigations are ongoing”.

In January 2014, three men, Jason Grima, from St Paul’s Bay and two Spaniards,  Unai Lacelle Zumeta and Jose Ramon Garate Lasarte, were remanded in custody over charges of trafficking drugs from Sicily.

The two men arrived in Malta on a catamaran from Sicily and were found in possession of 1.5 kilos of cannabis hidden in a suitcase with a false bottom.

Grima denied charges of conspiracy to traffic cannabis, selling cannabis grass and possession of cannabis with intent to traffic, while the two Spaniards denied charges of conspiracy to traffic cannabis, importing the drug and selling it as well as possession of cannabis with intent to traffic.

It is thought that the two men travelled all the way from Spain to Sicily by coach and brought over the drugs to Malta, only to be arrested upon their arrival in Marsa.