22 years’ jail for drug trafficking

Arnold Farrugia, 44 of Zebbug, was found guilty of trafficking of cocaine, in a trial by jury that saw jurors deliver an 8-1 guilty verdict.

Farrugia was sentenced by Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano to 22 years' imprisonment.

Farrugia was charged with trafficking of 6.2kg of cocaine in 2005, of 82% purity in a trailer owned by the accused, back in 2005. At the time the drug had a street value of €500,000, the largest haul ever by the police.

Earlier this week, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi told jurors that the prosecution had failed to prove whether the accused had associated himself with the intent to traffic drugs, or how he had come to posses the drugs to sell them. Farrugia had been in Malta well before the arrival of the trailer, before being summoned to to the Freeport and the Groupage facility at Hal Far where police apprehended the trailer and its contents.

In her submissinos, prosecuting lawyer Lara Lanfranco told jurors that a single fingerprint was found on one of the drug parcels, which were packaged 'professionally'. “It is only a single print yet it was not there by mere coincidence."

The refrigerated trailer arrived in Malta, with its refrigeration unit disconnected, aborad the Sea Malta vessel Maltese Falcon, which had sailed from the port of Genoa. A Polish driver had driven it from the Netherlands to Genoa. The police intercepted the trailer when it was unloaded at Laboratory Wharf and X-rays revealed six packets of cocaine hidden in the refrigeration unit.