A Bulgarian man was yesterday sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges of importing heroin into the country on two separate occasions.

Atanas Paskalev Dimitrov, 32, was due to face a trial by jury yesterday morning, but entered a guilty plea before the panel was convened. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in drugs, heroin possession, importation and trafficking.

In the bill of indictment, the attorney general accused Dimitrov of having conspired with a third party, identified only as Camel in Istanbul, to import heroin into Malta in 2003. Camel engaged the services of Dimitrov in order to smuggle the drugs into the country and hand them over to a third party, which he did.

On Christmas Eve of 2003, Dimitrov embarked on another smuggling run into Malta, after which he was supposed to hand over the drugs to an unidentified person from Mdina.

As payment, Dimitrov was to receive $700 in travel expenses and $1,000 as actual payment for the run. With Camel’s help, Dimitrov separated the heroin into equal amounts and put them into capsules, which he swallowed. He flew to Malta from Istanbul via Frankfurt, but the police had received an anonymous tip-off.

On his arrival in Malta, he was met by police officers and Customs officials and they found him to be in possession of some 546 grammes of heroin.

Dimitrov admitted that he had used the same procedure to smuggle 45 capsules of heroin into the country on a previous occasion, namely on 24 November, 2003. The attorney general said that Dimitrov was not a drug user and that the heroin was of high purity and would have fetched a very high price, running into thousands of liri, on the local market.

In handing down judgment, the court, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said that on 7 February the accused and the prosecution had both filed an application saying that both parties had agreed on a sentence of 12 years and a Lm20,000 fine in the event of a guilty plea being entered.

The court took note that the accused had decided to enter a guilty plea on 7 February and had confirmed his intentions in court yesterday.

Mr Justice Galea Debono said the court took into account the accused’s early guilty plea, his criminal record, the fact that the crimes were continuous and the amount of drugs imported, concluding that the imposition of a prison term as agreed by both parties would be satisfactory.

Mr Justice Galea Debono therefore sentenced the accused to 12 years’ imprisonment and ordered that all time spent in preventive custody in relation to the case in questioned to be deducted.

The accused was also fined Lm20,000 convertible into 18 months’ additional imprisonment if not settled within 15 days and was also ordered to pay out Lm349 in court fees.

Mr Justice Galea Debono also declared the accused to be an illegal immigrant and issued a removal order against him, which will be put into effect once the accused serves his term.

Senior counsel to the Republic Aaron Bugeja prosecuted while Dr Joe Mifsud appeared for the accused.