Ivorian bailed twice in a week after turning up to pay bail while carrying cannabis

A man who was re-arrested when he went to pay his bail deposit at Corradino Correctional Facility, carrying a bag of cannabis has been bailed again – without having to pay a further deposit.

35-year-old Mumen Traore Trabule, from the Ivory Coast, had been arraigned last Monday before Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras on charges of aggravated heroin possession, after a capsule containing 20 grams of the drug, together with a small amount of cannabis, had been found on his person during a spot check at the Marsa open centre. Trabule was under a probation order at the time.

During Monday’s sitting, he had been granted bail against a €450 deposit and a €7,000 personal guarantee, but the man was arrested again yesterday while paying his bail deposit at Corradino, after a routine security check discovered him to be in possession of a sachet of cannabis grass.

This afternoon, police Inspectors Gabriel Micallef and Spiridione Zammit presented the man under arrest before Magistrate Charmaine Galea and charged him with cannabis possession, relapsing, attempting to smuggle drugs into prison and with breaching his bail conditions.

Lawyer Joe Mifsud entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the Ivorian and requested he be granted bail again.

Remarkably, the court acceded to this request – a rare event rendered more unusual by the fact that the requirement of a bail deposit was not imposed.