11 arrested after St Julian’s drug bust

A joint operation between Sliema and St Julian’s district police, the Immigration section and police canine units has led to the arrest of 11 persons on suspicion of drug trafficking and drug use in apartments and a public garden.

The arrests came after police conducted a surveillance operation on the Dragonara road apartment which lasted several days.

Two Latvian men aged 20 and 22 and a 33-year-old Spanish woman were arrested in the apartment, which was also searched using sniffer dogs. Drug-related paraphernalia were found there.

Meanwhile, in a nearby public garden, police acting on reports from the public, observed a number of persons allegedly using drugs and one of them selling the illegal substances.

8 persons, all Somali nationals, were arrested as a result.

Whilst the suspects were being spoken to by the police, sniffer dogs searched the area as well as the residence of the 30-year-old suspected trafficker in Triq Schreiber, St Julian’s. In this search an amount of what police suspect to be cannabis was found, together with weighing scales.

Police investigations into the case are ongoing.