Jumping from one subject to another, a man gave a detailed story yesterday of how he fell into the drug world and lost his “empire” of 32 establishments in Soho, London. After recounting these events, he went on to explain how he had ended up in court facing trafficking charges.

Jean Agius, aged 61, from Attard, took the stand yesterday at a sitting in the case against him where he is accused of conspiring to import and traffic cocaine.

Mr Agius moved to England in 1966 and would come over to Malta occasionally to invest his money in property. The accused, who said he was a journalist with The Times of Malta before leaving for the UK, explained that his business overseas was very successful and said that at one point he owned around one square mile of property.

As the accused’s lawyers presented a list of the bars, clubs and restaurants he had owned, Mr Agius chimed in saying: “That list does not even include all the property I had. There were so many I would sometimes get confused and forget that some were mine.”

Mr Agius said that being accused of fraud and living off immoral earnings spelt the beginning of his downfall. “These were trumped up charges and I was remanded in custody and refused bail for 10 months,” he said.

In June 1984, Mr Agius was acquitted of all charges, following a three-month trial over the course of which he said Dr Guido de Marco had acted as his defence attorney. As he spoke, Mr Agius whipped out newspaper cuttings and stories written in British magazines recording the trial verdict. Upon seeing this, presiding magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima demanded to see a copy of the court judgement in print. As Mr Agius protested that the whole story could be found in the press cuttings, the magistrate stopped him and said: “I want a copy of the judgement. Here we deal with facts, not sensationalism.”

Mr Agius replied that he did not have a copy to hand, and would present one to the court as soon as possible.

“I sued the Metropolitan Police Commissioner regarding my prolonged detainment and I won the case,” he continued. Unfortunately, he said, the time spent in custody had repercussions on his blossoming business. “People were being allowed to break into my property and I had to deal with a large number of squatters who even went as far as burning one of the buildings,” he said.

“My empire fell down like a pack of cards,” said Mr Agius. He said the financial problems escalated and he did not have enough money to pay for his children’s schooling.

Mr Agius then moved on to explain how he had fallen into the trap of crack-cocaine. He explained that his brother had died of Aids in September 1987. “My brother’s wife, who also had Aids, got me onto crack. She gave it to me the first time and that was my downfall,” he said

In answer to a question from the magistrate, Mr Agius said that when he was younger he had tried other drugs, like pills and cocaine. He said he had snorted a few lines of cocaine, especially when his nightclub business was booming. “Everyone used to do it and you’d be treated like an outcast if you didn’t go along with it,” he said.

He went on to explain how he became addicted to crack cocaine in 1987, “in a big, big way”. He give a detailed description of the process one must go through to prepare crack cocaine that is bought by the user in the form of cocaine. “It is a messy job and the high lasts only a minute. The second you take it you immediately want another hit,” he said, adding that it is the brain that yearns for the drug.

Mr Agius admitted using up to 120 grammes of the drug in an eight-hour stretch. He said he spent a lot of money on crack-cocaine and his habit escalated to the point where he would ask patrons at his restaurant to pay before eating so he could go out and buy more drugs.

In 2000, Mr Agius moved back to Malta, still with his drug addiction. He said he could not get his hands on good cocaine here and claimed that all the drugs he bought were “rubbish”. “My only alternative was to get it from abroad,” he said. He called his dealer and asked him to send him drugs.

Mr Agius said he had done this transaction twice before being caught. “The first time the drugs were good, but the second time, a woman got the drugs and they were no good so I threw them away,” he said.

He explained that the deal made when he was caught involved £4,800 being wired to England before he got his hands on the drugs. Mr Agius added that he knew a woman would be bringing him the drugs and he was not happy about it. He added that he had had to borrow the money since he was bankrupt.

He added that he had been waiting for the woman at the airport, still high on crack and desperate to get his hands on more. He said that the plain clothes policemen stationed at the airport must have noticed that he was high.

The woman disembarked, he met her and they got into the car driven by Mr Agius’s friend. The police then pounced and Mr Agius immediately told the police that his friend had nothing to do with the drugs – she had not known why Mr Agius had collected the woman who had come from abroad.

Following his arrest, Mr Agius made a statement to the police in which he claimed the drugs, comprising about 115 grammes of cocaine, were not only for him and that he was going to share them with some friends. “They are not really friends. I call them friends because they are users,” he said.

When pressed to give names, Mr Agius had refused. In court yesterday, he said he had said he would be sharing the drugs with three friends because he thought the police would not believe that all 115 grammes were for his personal use.

As he said this, Superintendent Neil Harrison seized the opportunity to note that in his statement, Mr Agius had not specified the number of people he was planning to share the drugs with, whereas in court he mentioned three. “Does this not mean that three people you were going to smoke this with actually exist?” he asked.

The accused replied that there were people he used to smoke crack-cocaine with, but they brought their own drugs whenever they met at his house.

Over the course of his tale, the accused also told the court that his son Mark had had to be permanently institutionalised due to the damage caused by incessant marijuana use. “He was on it all the time and it grabbed hold of him as my crack addiction grabbed hold of me,” he said.

He added that a writer named Toby Young had included a chapter on his exploits in a best-selling novel. “There is even a play about me in London called Coke Strokes,” said Mr Agius.

Towards the end of the sitting, the accused admitted he was “a crack head” and said that he had imported drugs for himself, but had never trafficked. “Now I cope without it. I drink some wine and I am all right,” he said.

Following Mr Agius’s deposition, his British solicitor, Jeffrey Maxwell, also took the stand and told of his relationship with the accused and how he had lost everything he had.

The case continues.

Superintendent Neil Harrison prosecuted while Dr Roberto Montalto, Dr Jose Herrera and Dr Ian Farrugia appeared for the accused.