Italian jailed eight years, fined €15,000

Italian Claudio Porsenna was jailed by Judge Lawrence Quintano, in a lengthy judgment handed this afternoon following an admission to the charges by the accused last Monday at the start of his trial.

Porsenna had originally averted a jury trial in 2003 after pleading guilty to conspiring to traffic 2.5 kg of cannabis.

But an attempt at plea bargaining then failed because the Attorney General requested a seven-year jail term, 14 times above that received by another man who was accused with him. Porsenna claimed discrimination throughout.

The prosecution, however argued that the other man received a lesser sentence because he had collaborated with the police.

Defence lawyers Steve Tonna Lowell and Joe Giglio told the Judge Quintano last Monday that their client's name was made by a Maltese man during a police investigation, as the source of the drug.

This man then entered a guilty to trafficking two kilogrammes of cannabis and was jailed for a year. His prison term was then reduced to six months on appeal.

Lawyer Tonna Lowell argued that his client had handled 2.5 kg of cannabis while this man had handled two kilos, but this small difference did not merit such a discrepancy in sentence, he argued.

The Attorney General was asking for seven years and a €14,000 fine for this crime, and Porsenna was handed an eight year jail term and €15,000 fine.

Accused

Porsenna and the Maltese allegedly plotted on how they would conduct the trafficking. The Italian had two blocks of cannabis resin in his possession and had also passed a quantity to one of the Maltese accomplices to sell.

The Italian was the brains behind the plot.

He was arrest in 2007 while already on board the ferry which was about to head for Naples.

Investigation

Assistant Commissioner and Drugs Squad Chief Neil Harrison told the court how Claudio Porsenna was arrested after a 25-year-old St Julian's man, whose name cannot be published by court order, told the police that he had been commissioned by Porsenna to sell eight bars of cannabis resin, each weighing 250 grammes, at Lm400 each.

Harrison led the investigations which intercepted a drug deal which was to take place in St. Julian's.

He explained that while keeping the area under surveillance, the police spotted the St Julian's man drive up the road leading to the Regional Road and park behind another suspect's car.

The police intervened and asked the St Julian's man if he had any drugs in his possession and the man handed them a 250-gramme bar of cannabis resin.

The police then conducted searches during which they seized another 250-gramme bar of cannabis from the freezer of the St Julian's man's house, as well as weighing scales, a small piece of cannabis, five grammes of cocaine and Lm800 from his bedroom.

The police also seized a metal box containing traces of cannabis from Pavia's house.

Harrison went on to explain that the St Julian's man had told police that he had bought the drugs from an Italian man called Porsenna who drove a car with an Italian registration plate.

He also told them that the Italian man was going to leave Malta later that day.

The inspector immediately contacted a constable at the Pinto Wharf Passenger Terminal and was informed that Claudio Porsenna was already on board although his car was still ashore.

Porsenna was arrested and taken to the police headquarters where he denied any connection with the drugs or knowing the St Julian's man.

Inspector Harrison said that during questioning the St Julian's man explained how he met Porsenna in a St Julian's bar. There Porsenna had told him that he had cannabis resin to sell and commissioned the St Julian's man to sell eight bars on his behalf.

The St Julian's man was instructed to sell each bar at Lm400 each. He told police that he had met Pavia to hand him one of the bars because Pavia knew of someone who was interested in buying it at Lm450.

The inspector said that during a statement the other suspect also denied meeting the St Julian's man to buy drugs from him.