VALLETTA: Two men this afternoon pleaded not guilty after being accused in court of smuggling a large quantity of cigarettes after emptying a container at Malta Freeport.
Roderick Borg, 32 of Qormi and Sebastian Zammit, 60 of Safi, were remanded in custody after being accused of contraband of 10.5million cigarettes. Mr Zammit is a customs officer and Mr Borg is a freeport employee.
The cigarettes carried excise duty of €2.2 million.
Earlier, the government said the police had made arrests as part of investigations into the disappearance and return of a container from Malta Freeport.
The government in a late-night statement said that according to a report received by the authorities, the container was shipped to Malta on July 24 and it was unloaded to a truck.
Yet the container was then put back in its place, seals and all after having been taken out of the freepport.
The container is now being held by the police.
