Cocaine trafficking case collapses after accused's statement ruled inadmissible

The case against a man charged with cocaine trafficking in 2014 after police following his car observed a bag containing cocaine being thrown out of it, has collapsed after the central piece of evidence against him, his statement to police, was declared inadmissible.

Liam Cauchi had been charged with possession and trafficking of cocaine in 2014. He was also accused of recidivism.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras had heard several police officers testify about the man’s arrest after a silver Toyota Tercel he was driving was ordered to pull over under the Santa Venera tunnels. Officers had seen one of the car’s occupants throw a bag, later found to contain 18 sachets of cocaine, out the car’s left rear window.

Cauchi had been arrested together with the two passengers. Two mobile phones were found in his possession, one of which contained a text message which the police deemed suspicious.

The accused had consistently denied the charges throughout the proceedings. His lawyer, Jason Grima, successfully requested the expunging of the man’s statement to police interrogators, on the grounds that it had been made in the absence of legal counsel.

The court observed that the absence of a lawyer during his interrogation - despite being an accepted practice at the time-  had, in fact, resulted in him suffering prejudice as he had made incriminating statements in his own regard, which had led him to be subject to criminal proceedings carrying a mandatory prison sentence.

With his statement declared inadmissible, the remaining evidence was insufficient to find guilt, said the court.

Moreover, the accused had been driving the car with two other men as passengers. Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras noted that one of the other men, Steve Mangion, had testified to having thrown the bag containing the drugs out of the car window when he heard police sirens, after hearing someone telling him “armi armi” (throw it away, throw it away), but said he hadn’t seen who had passed it to him as he had been looking at the police car behind them at the time.

The other passenger, Themer Kodir, told the court that he had not seen or heard anything and had only found out why they had been arrested after the arrest took place.

A court-appointed analyst had discovered a suspicious message, which he said probably referred to a drug deal, on one of the phones found in the accused’s possession, but highlighted that this message dated back to December 2010, and was therefore outside the scope of the charges.

This, together with the fact that the accused had not been alone in the vehicle at the time of the arrest, meant that the court could not conclude with the level of conviction required at law, that the accused had been in possession of the cocaine which had been recovered by the police.

Cauchi was declared not guilty. The court ordered the destruction of the drugs seized.

Inspector Malcolm Bondin prosecuted. Lawyer Jason Grima appeared for Cauchi.