No drugs or weapons were found on Aidan Bartolo or in his car following a manhunt in Mellieħa spurred on by an attempt to arrest him on drug trafficking charges.

Court sittings have revealed that police officers uncovered no illicit materials, drugs, arms, or otherwise on Bartolo or within his vehicle. He was arrested during the early hours of 3rd December after evading police capture a few hours earlier.

Bartolo, a suspected drug trafficker, was being tailed by police following a tip-off from an anonymous source. Police set up a check point and began waving cars down. However, Bartolo noticed the ruse and began speeding towards police officers.

Officers fired 50 gunshots in his direction in an attempt to stop him, with one bullet hitting Bartolo in the foot. Bartolo eventually abandoned his car and dashing into Miżieb trying to hide under cover of darkness.

He was arrested a few hours later after an intense search by police officers. He did not resist arrest. 

Bartolo was soon charged in court with attempted grievous bodily injury, injuring police officers, driving in a reckless manner, disobeying police orders and being a recidivist, among others.

He was not charged with any drug-related offences. Police have confirmed under questioning from lawyer Franco Debono that no drugs were found. 

Bartolo’s lawyers, Debono and Marion Camilleri, have already begun to question the police’s approach, insisting that their client was not intending to cause any harm, but rather simply escape. They insist that Bartolo acted the way he did because he was scared.

It should be noted that this is not Bartolo’s first brush with the law. In May 2017, Bartolo was sentenced to 39 months in prison and fined €2,000 after he admitted to possession of 31 sachets of cocaine and breaching court orders.

At the time, the courts had heard how Bartolo had driven off when he had noticed the police on the eve of that arrest, running a red light in the process, before being apprehended a few hundred metres down the road.

It remains to be seen why the police did not proceed with caution given Bartolo’s previous record. 

The case continues next week.

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