A Mosta man was jailed for four-and-a-half years and fined e931.75 (Lm400) after he was found guilty to trafficking in and being in possession of heroin during the operative period of a suspended jail sentence.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Lawrence Quintano, heard how the police searched the house of Tony Armando Zahra, 32, on 12 April 2006 and failed to find drugs. However, the police found a number of drug related objects which had traces of heroin on them.

Zahra had denied he had ever dealt in drugs, however, he admitted to the police that he had been continually abusing heroin for the previous 12 years.

The police had apprehended two men, an Arab and a Maltese, who testified that they had purchased heroin from Zahra.

In jailing Zahra, Magistrate Quintano said that the court had already given him his last chance to reform when he was handed a two year jail sentence suspended for four years. Thus he jailed him for a total of four-and-a-half years.