Police can never have enough manpower in the war against drugs and drug crimes constantly evolving, inspector from the Police Drug Squad Mark Anthony Mercieca said.
In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Mercieca said that reports by Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) have shown a hyperproduction of drugs in Europe, with billions being spent on drugs each year.
Cannabis is the preferred drug in most countries, including Malta, Mercieca said, followed by cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs. The demand for drugs remains high, he said.
Mercieca said that like other countries, Malta is on the receiving end of drug cartels, organised crime groups (OCGs) who take care of production, importation, as well as distribution of drugs to the consumer.
“As far as we are aware, there are no drug cartels in Malta who are producing drugs. Globalisation has made it so that OCGs are not only based in Colombia or the Netherlands. They have spread around the world, and in Malta we have various members of foreign OCGs, as well as local,” Mercieca said, saying that drugs can be smuggled to Malta in a variety of ways.
Asked if the age when people are exposed to drugs is decreasing, Mercieca said that young people have the tendency to want to try using certain substances.
“Before, drugs such as cocaine, heroin, cannabis and synthetics were expensive. Nowadays, drugs are more accessible and affordable. You have the opportunity and prices are affordable,” he said.
Mercieca continued saying that OCGs saw a window of opportunity in the large market of drugs, leading them to start producing more addictive substances, such as crack cocaine, changing the form of normal cocaine.
“These people do not care about the health of their clients; they are only interested in their pockets. The products are being made more addictive to keep their demand stable,” he said, adding that there are numerous suppliers in Malta, with the police continuously working to seize drugs.
Mercieca said that the country has one of the strictest and strongest laws against drugs, with punishments reaching up to life imprisonment.
He said that many seizures are connected with foreign individuals, who would be part of an OCG.
“They are so large, and they will never stop. There is a big profit for criminals. The war against drugs does not stop,” he said.
Mercieca spoke about the most worrying drugs for the police, one of which being synthetic drugs, as their effects are different from those of traditional drugs. Psychoactive substances are used to produce drugs such as MDMA and ecstasy.
“These are made from chemicals, substances and products which are not natural, causing great damage to an individual’s health, besides not knowing what you are ingesting,” Mercieca said.
In one instance, the police found a drug which contained Fentanyl, a powerful medicine and a dangerous drug, which has killed many thousands of people in the United States, Mercieca said.
Asked if cases of synthetic drugs have increased in Malta, Mercieca said that the country is still more on the traditional side. According to reports of drug squad seizures, synthetics have in the past years remained stable, and in the low ratio, he said.
“The request for heroin has decreased, but cannabis and cocaine are still popular. As for synthetics, if we catch a ton of cocaine in a year, we would catch 2kg of synthetic drugs. There are still people who use them, especially in parties,” Mercieca said.
He also highlighted the dangers of synthetic cannabinoid, which gives the same or more strengthened effects of cannabis, but it is made artificially, causing great harm to a person’s health.
“Unfortunately, it is the young people who try it the most,” he said.
Mercieca was asked if the recent reform to the bill for responsible use of cannabis has caused problems for the police.
“With regards to the recent amendments to the cannabis law, the police have worked on the proactive side before the law came into effect. We knew cannabis was a problem for the squad as many Maltese citizens consume it,” Mercieca said.
He said that the police have naturally decreased their seizures of cannabis, due to the law permitting an individual to be in possession of up to 7 grams of cannabis, with a capping of four plants grown in each household.
“But we must be certain that the cannabis found, even if it is less than 7 grams, is for personal use and not for trafficking. If the police sees that it is for trafficking, that person can be brought to court and can receive a hefty sentence,” Mercieca said.
He added that the police delivered more talks in schools and communities, offering knowledge on the matter, before the bill came into effect.
“The people and the public became more mature with the information received leading to more mature decisions,” he said.
Has the work of the police increased or decreased? Mercieca said that holding someone for possession has decreased, but what has increased are the complaints from neighbours near houses where a plant is being grown, causing inconvenience of smells of maturing plants.
When the police receive complaints, inspections are done and individuals could be taken to court for inconvenience to neighbours.
Inspections may also lead to the police finding irregularities: “There have been incidents where people grow their cannabis plants inside their garage in a -2 level and fill the place with smells – that is against the law as the law says that you are allowed to plant four plants in a residence you are registered in, not in a garage,” Mercieca said.
Concerns have been highlighted over driving under the influence of drugs, perhaps the cannabis reform encouraging individuals to become nonchalant about driving stoned, or most recently, cases with persons driving under the influence of cocaine.
PN MP Joe Giglio had said in Parliament that the police lack resources to tackle driving under the influence of drugs, saying that a breathalyser test for drugs is not at the police’s disposal.
Asked about this, Mercieca said police from the traffic branch are undergoing a phase of procurement for drug breathalyser tests to be used on suspects on site, looking at which testing kits to purchase.
“Cannabis and other drugs are not like alcohol, they remain in your system for weeks and months. The police have always done drug tests and is still doing it in hospitals. Right now, there are discussions on which device to buy,” Mercieca said.
He said many times in fatal accidents or accidents where injuries are suffered, the driver is later found positive for substances.
Mercieca also said that the drug breathalyser would work similarly to the alcohol breathalyser and the suspect can refuse to do a breathalyser test for the police.
“This, however, works against the individual, as by law, they would be considering themselves as having consumed alcohol, in this case,” Mercieca said.
Asked if serious accidents as a result of driving under the influence of drugs have taken place, Mercieca said that there were such accidents but he could not comment as many cases are ongoing in court.
“Studies and perception have shown that a person who has consumed drugs is more subjective to accidents, as they are not in control of their minds. It comes from the person to be responsible and educated. We have many cab services nowadays so that people can spend that little extra to get home safely after consuming cannabis or alcohol,” Mercieca said.
Asked if the drug squad is lacking resources in general, Mercieca emphasised the lack of human resources.
“There is never enough; the war against drugs continues to grow. OCGs nowadays have become more refined, made technological advances, increased their manpower. Many of them have joined forces to take care of shipments, sales and money-laundering activities,” Mercieca said.
“It is never enough to cater for the criminals we face every day, regardless of how many people you have. But the battle continues and we do our best to stop it and remove harmful substances from our streets, to avoid it reaching our children and youths,” he said.
Mercieca said that the squad continues to also advance as much as they can, reiterating that more manpower is needed, as they work not only locally, but internationally with Europol, Interpol, and more.
“They also assist us from the technological side and we assist them with information we have from foreign OCGs coming and going to Malta,” Mercieca said.
The inspector was asked if it frustrates the police when, after all the work put into a raid, the individuals caught with drugs are given bail or a suspended sentence.
“It does not frustrate us, the police are there to do their job, which is to stop criminal activity and seize the drugs. When we take the individual to court, they are still in a phase where they are being accused and nowadays, everyone has their fundamental rights – they are still innocent until proven guilty,” Mercieca said.
He said that the court might grant bail if the accused asks for it.
“It is then up to them to honour the bail conditions. Do they always honour them? No, and that's when the police gets frustrated, for the reason that the accused was given a chance and they chose to go down the wrong path again,” Mercieca said, adding that while everyone may be given a chance to regulate their lives for making a mistake, they must reform themselves.
“There is nothing personal, we do our jobs, it is up to us to seize them again if the accused is found to be using drugs again. We do have these cases,” he said.
Mercieca was asked if the police has found it difficult to carry out their work, as many are those who use substances in the privacy of their own homes.
“Parties are held in farmhouses, private residences and secret parties, and there is abuse of substances in these residences. The police do not always know of all these, but it does receive information, such as neighbours calling. The police then go and carry out inspections,” he said.
Asked about worries of drugs entering ports through containers, Mercieca said that a lot of the drugs entering into ports would be using Malta as a transit point for other countries.
The drug squad knows this through the transit of the container, and police intelligence, as well as customs intelligence, work jointly to find and seize drugs, Mercieca said.
Malta, being a small island with many secluded bays, could be considered as easy for someone with a boat to perhaps smuggle in drugs.
Asked how the police detects this, Mercieca said that every operation has its difficulties and advantages, having to work differently at sea than in other operations.
“We have many operations linked to the sea and there are many large seizures of drugs coming from Sicily or other foreign ports coming to Malta,” he said.
Maltese MEP Cyrus Engerer had urged the EU to tap into the potential of psychedelics such as magic mushrooms and MDMA to help treat mental health illnesses, saying this, pushes boundaries.
Parliamentary secretary for Reforms Rebecca Buttigieg also said that she is open to suggestions from the public on the matter. Asked if the country should move into the legalisation of these substances, Mercieca said that up until the drugs are considered illegal, the police will seize and investigate.
“In the merit of if they enter into law or not, we cannot say if we agree or disagree with the legalisation of these substances,” Mercieca said.
When pressed, Mercieca said that discussions on the matter should include studies related to the harm the substances cause to a person, its repercussions and the burden on the authorities.
“We are here to enforce the law. We should move towards the scientific point of view rather than the word of the police. The police will stop it and persecute if it is illegal by law. I cannot say what problems and damage we could face in the future,” Mercieca said.
Mercieca said that Malta has done right by the cannabis reform, as the system is not a commercial one.
“The way the structure was done for the responsible use of cannabis in Malta is not commercial, that is a positive aspect we saw. In other countries, tourism for cannabis was created,” Mercieca said.
He said that the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) is very strict in the way it is working.
Mercieca said that the black market will always try to fight back, try to take over and reduce prices of their substance, in this case cannabis.
“The aim of this law is to reduce the provision of the (cannabis) black market. The black market will always try to fight back, but I can assure you that it has already felt a hit with regards to cannabis. Why? Because people can now plant it in their homes and will be able to procure it through the clubs. People are not buying from the black market anymore,” Mercieca added.
He continued that while the black market will still offer other drugs, will still have clients and will still sell, looking at the bigger picture, the fact that people have other ways to acquire cannabis, as well as the substance being safe and without pesticides, already shows a reduction in terms of cannabis being procured illegally.