‘Time to go home’ - so customs officers leave 500g of mephedrone in office over the weekend

Magistrate Miriam Hayman expressed her dismay at evidence given in her courtroom this morning by two customs officers - stationed at the Customs Department offices at Maltpost head office in Marsa - who separately admitted to having left a 'suspicious' packet on their desks because it was "time to go home."

The officers were called to give evidence in the compilation of evidence against Stefano Scicluna, an IT consultant, 23 of Zejtun, who stands charged with importing half a kilogramme of mephedrone.

The controlled substance was imported via a postal package from China.

Mephedrone can be used as a synthetic stimulant drug which users can swallow, snort or inject, producing similar effects to MDMA, amphetamines, and cocaine.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio, who is appearing for Scicluna, argued that his client had no idea that the substance he had ordered as a paint additive, had a chemical composition which included mephedrone.

Customs officer Carmel Sammut, who calmly took the witness stand, irking Magistrate Hayman when she urged the witness not to take all day to approach the stand, had to be coaxed by the magistrate in giving evidence in a way that he could be understood.

Sammut said that a Maltapost employee had brought him a package labelled 'Titanium Dioxide', a composition which he had never heard about. The customs officer sent the package to the Port Health Office for an opinion, which returned a result which read: "not for human consumption."

Urged by the Magistrate to explain further what he did with the package, Sammut said that since it was "time to go home" he left the package on his desk overnight, for another officer to take over in the morning, and pass the package on to enforcement officers who had to conduct further tests on the package. The witness said that he didn't know what the outcome of that test was.

His superior, Carmel Camilleri, told the court that he received the package in his offfice later the next day, after enforcement officers had reported that the substance had tested positive for mephedrone.

Camilleri said that he then called the police to inform them about the mephedrone, but since it was Friday, and it was already 1.30pm, "I the package inside my desk drawer and left the matter for Monday."

Magistrate Hayman interrupted the witness by asking him to repeat what he had just said, expressing dismay at what she had just heard.

"Are you telling me that you left half a kilogramme of mephedrone over a weekend in your desk?" the Magistrate asked. "Yes," the officer replied, justifying himself. "It was 1:30pm, I had to go home, my day was over!".

But Magistrate Hayman expressed further surprise to hear from the witness that the package had in fact been in Malta since April, and for some odd reason, had been left idle together with some other packages on a window sill after spending months on a shelf.

The witness explained that this was an abnormal situation, and the Maltapost employee who decided to get the packages moving, brought the package to customs to check on the 'Titanium Dioxide,' by then it was July 10.

Magistrate Hayman meanwhile granted bail to the accused against a deposit of €4,000 and a personal guarantee of a further €20,000.