A 24-year-old from Tal-Ibrag was yesterday charged with cocaine possession with intent to traffic since the drug was found in circumstances denoting it was not for his personal use.

The court heard Police Sergeant Major Marisa Bartolo explain how on 14 February 2006 she had received confidential information from someone she knew that Pierre Camilleri, 24, from Ibrag, was going to deliver a packet of cocaine to a buyer in Pembroke. She said the delivery had to take place at around 7pm.

She said she went on site with a couple of other police officers and when they approached Mr Camilleri, he resisted the police and was therefore arrested.

Sergeant Major Bartolo explained that they took Mr Camilleri to the police depot in Floriana where the police questioned him but he did not reply to any of the questions. She said he did not even tell the police his name and surname.

She said that since Mr Camilleri had not opened his mouth after he was arrested, they suspected that he had something in his mouth. She said the police had to use a considerable amount of force to get Mr Camilleri to spit out whatever he had in his mouth and eventually managed. She said inside his mouth he had a packet containing some brown substance suspected to be cocaine.

Before magistrate Lawrence Quintano, Mr Camilleri is pleading not guilty to the charges brought against him.

Police Inspector Pierre Grech prosecuted while Dr Franco Debono appeared for the accused.