BERNARD BUSUTTIL
The police raided the house of Stiano Agius and Eleonor Tracy Agius in Qormi after they caught them on tape exchanging an envelope allegedly containing cocaine.
This was said in court yesterday during the compilation of evidence against the couple, 26 and 29 respectively, who are being accused of dealing in cocaine and possessing the drug not for their exclusive use on and before 10 November.
The man alone was accused of trafficking the drug, being in possession of ammunition without a license, handling false banknotes and relapsing.
While taking the witness stand, Police Inspector Denis Theuma said that police Drugs Squad had been trailing the couple for a number of days and decided to carry out a raid only after catching the couple on tape exchanging an envelope which they suspected contained drugs.
Stiano Agius, a car dealer, was caught on tape handing an envelope to his wife, a factory supervisor in front of their residence in Qormi. She was seen entering the house after her husband drove off.
Inspector Theuma said the police had been informed that Mr Agius was to receive cocaine.
The court, presided over by magistrate Mirian Hayman, heard how the police found a sealed envelope in the kitchen of the couple’s house during the raid carried out on Thursday. The envelope was found to contain 1.15 kilogrammes of cocaine. In the same room, the police also found a jar full of bullets and Lm15,000 in bundles of a thousand apiece in a paper bag.
The police also found golden objects, a false Lm10 note and Lm18,000 in bundles of one thousand.
Inspector Theuma said Eleonor Agius told the police that the money was hers and her husband’s, while Stiano Agius said that he never took drugs but used to be paid Lm1,000 for each envelope he held onto for a foreign man.
He had told the police that the man handed over the envelope in Marsa on the day preceding the raid. Magistrate Hayman said she will today pronounce herself on whether she would be granting the couple bail.
Police Inspectors Dennis Theuma and Paul Vassallo led the prosecution while Dr Franco Debono appeared for the accused.