Maltese national discharged from Italian ‘ketamine’ investigation

An importer of vetinerary products who was stopped by police at Milan Malpensa airport this week found himself at the wrong end of an Italian police investigation into ketamine trafficking.

Keith Attard was questioned over a sale of 200 boxes of 25mg ketamine, registered for use as an anaesthesia for animals, he made back in March 2010 to an Italian vet, Bartolomeo Sarzotti.

Documents seen by MaltaToday show that the Alba judge investigating the case cleared Attard, seeing that the sale to Sarzotti had been carried out legally, and was duly registered with the Maltese authorities. Ketamine can only be administered by registered vets and every medicine pack is traceable via its batch number. In this case, Attard's consignment of ketamine had been duly registered with the Maltese authorities for re-export to Italy.

But Sarzotti was already being investigated by the Italian police since the ketamine consignment had not been properly registered by the Italian vet. Their suspicions led to the interception of telephone calls between Sarzotti and Attard, specifically focused on the March sale of the 200 boxes.

According to Italian press reports, Sarzotti had already been caught red-handed with the ketamine as he delivered it to a nightclub owner, who in fact was an infiltrated police officer.

Attard happened to be in Milan this week to purchase an X-ray machine for his animal clinic, but was instead met with police asking to inspect his suitcase. He was discharged that same day by the Alba GIP. The investigations – codenamed 'Operazione Special Ket' – were focused on the city of Cuneo near Turin, where Sarzotti, according to Magistrates Domenico Manzione and Francesca di Naro, allegedly was going to resell the ketamine he purchased from Attard.