Alleged trafficker used trailer company to bring in drugs

A witness in the trial by jury of Arnold Farrugia, 44, accused of trafficking the largest ever quantity of cocaine to Malta, told the judge that the accused asked a transshipment company to use his empty trailer to load his illegal merchandise from the Netherlands.

A representative of Emmanuel Vella & Sons told jurors that when a transshipment company is informed that an empty trailer is available on the continent, a procedure is started to find any possible merchandise that can be loaded on it and brought to Malta. “Loading instructions are passed directly to the trailer’s driver. This was the case for the trailer belonging to the Arnold Farrugia, who was told to collect merchandise from Belgium and France,” the witness said.

But another company rep recalled receiving a phone call from the accused, asking if there was any merchandise to be collected from the Netherlands as the accused was currently there. “It was not normal that we load trailers from the Netherlands as our main workload comes from England and France, however once we knew there was a trailer available, we tried to do Farrugia a favour and utilise his trailer which was otherwise travelling empty,” the witness said.

Farrugia is facing a trial by jury over charges of importing 6.2kg of cocaine in 2005. Six packets containing 85.8% pure cocaine, with a street value of between €434,700 and €639,630, were found in the refrigeration compartment of a container belonging to the accused.

Alfred Vella, director of Emmanuel Vella & Sons, and Express Trailers, said his company was responsible for transshipments, and recalled that on 25 July 2005 his men at the Hal Far groupage complex did not know who the trailer belongs to, nor where it came from, prior to them seeing the vehicle and customs documentation. After the trailer is unloaded it is dispatched to the bonded stores from where it is collected by the owner.

“When I arrived on the scene, the customs and police officers had already cut the seals. Usually it is only customs officers who are present, but in this case the police were there too,” he said. Subsequently investigators took the trailer for scanning at the Freeport, but the witness remained at Hal Far. “When they returned they opened the refrigeration unit and retrieved six black packets,” Vella recalled.

Raymond Darmanin, former client manager of Sea Malta, described the documentation relating to the boarding, shipment and unloading of trailers on Sea Malta vessels. Trailer TR529 was said to contain 94 items, and arrived in Malta from the port of Genoa onboard Sea Malta vessel Maltese Falcon. “The vessel was had three decks, none of which had CCTV cameras installed and I was never asked by the police for a crew list of those who were on duty on that trip,” Darmanin said.

Drug found could be turned into over 12,000 doses

Court expert pharmacist Mario Mifsud explained that on average the purity of cocaine found on the street in 2005 was 40%. The 6.2kg found in the accused's trailer, 85.8% pure cocaine, could have fetched between €70 and €110 per gram, bringing the value of the drug found inside the accused's trailer to between €434,700 and €639,630. 

Police inspector Neil Harrison said that upon investigation, the mobile scanner had size restrictions and could not scan the trailer as a whole. When the customs officers physically inspected every package, nothing illegal was found inside, but an X-ray scan of the empty trailer showed that things were hidden inside the refrigeration unit. "At that stage we realised that the unit contained something inside it, and we handed the case over to the police. Later, at around 7pm, the duty magistrate, court experts, police and customs officers retrieved packets and on site tests resulted they contained cocaine."

A Scene Of Crime Officer, who no longer works at the Forensic Unit, said that the panel covering the refrigeration unit had already been removed. Talking the jury through a photographic collection taken during the on-site inquiry, the witness explained the process from when the cooling unit was dismantled, the drug retrieved and the drugs sealed in evidence bags.

Lawyers Lara Lanfranco and Kevin Valletta are representing the Attorney General while Dr Arthur Azzopardi and Dr Edward Gatt are representing the accused.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano is presiding.