The Police Commissioner, through the Attorney General, filed an application in court yesterday for the revocation of bail granted to an Englishman who on Tuesday was charged with conspiring to deal in ecstasy and with importing more than 50,000 ecstasy pills.

Steven John Lewis Marsden, 45, from Sheffield in the United Kingdom, but living in St Paul’s Bay, was charged with conspiring with people in Malta and abroad to import ecstasy pills into the country. He was also charged with importing more than 50,000 ecstasy pills and with being in possession of the banned drug.

Monday’s haul is believed to have been the biggest ever in Malta and the market value of the ecstasy pills is estimated to be in the region of about Lm250,000.

Mr Marsden pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and magistrate Dennis Montebello acceded to a request for bail by legal aid Leslie Cuschieri and granted Mr Marsden bail against a deposit of Lm10,000. He did not impose a personal guarantee on the defendant but ordered the freezing of all his assets.

During Tuesday’s sitting, police inspectors Norbert Ciappara and Dennis Theuma objected to Mr Marsden being given bail because he had not cooperated at all with the police in their investigations. They also said he had obstructed them while they were carrying out their investigations and had generally been a hindrance, so much so that it took the police eight hours to search his Mitsubishi Pajero before they found the pills that had been hidden inside.

Yesterday, the police, through the AG, filed an application calling on the court to revoke Mr Marsden’s bail and remand him in custody while the criminal proceedings are under way. It is understood that the court will hear submissions from the prosecution and defence today in order to establish whether bail should be revoked.