Spanish national gets 12 years in Malta for trafficking 21kg of cannabis found in suitcases

A court in Malta sentenced a 65-year-old Spaniard to 12 years in prison and a €20,000 fine after customs officers found 21kg of suspected cannabis in his luggage, part of a wider run of trafficking ca

FILE — police lights · Tony Webster / CC BY-SA 2.0

A 65-year-old Spanish man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined €20,000 after admitting to importing and trafficking 21 kilograms of cannabis into Malta, according to tvmnews.mt.

The Case

Francisco Javier Martin Diaz was arrested after customs officers inspecting passengers arriving from Lisbon found two suitcases containing what was suspected to be cannabis, tvmnews.mt reported. He was taken into custody by the Drug Squad. The offences date to 14 January 2024, according to the outlet.

Diaz admitted both to importing and trafficking the drug and to possessing cannabis under circumstances indicating it was not for personal use, tvmnews.mt reported. The Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera, accepted a sentencing agreement reached between Diaz and the Attorney General's Office and ordered the confiscation of assets and items connected to the offences, according to the report.

Part of a Wider Pattern

The Diaz sentencing sits alongside a series of trafficking cases reported in Malta in recent months, according to related coverage in our database. Times of Malta reported a separate sentence of 15 years for a man found with 54kg of cannabis, while another case detailed a 12-year sentence for 14kg smuggled into Malta in a suitcase. TVMnews.mt also reported a four-year sentence over 812 grams of smuggled cannabis, and a Lovin Malta report described the arrest of three men, including two Italians, after a controlled delivery intercepted a parcel from Spain containing 1.5kg of cannabis resin.

These cases point to import routes running through mail and passenger traffic from other European countries, though the individual circumstances differ and no single pattern of origin is confirmed across all reports. A separate item in our database, citing MMJDaily, describes Spain, Czechia and Malta as emerging hubs in Europe's broader cannabis supply chain, though that reporting does not draw a direct line to any of the specific court cases above.

Legal Backdrop

Malta became the first European Union country to effectively legalise personal cannabis use and cultivation for residents in 2021, according to Newsbook. That framework does not extend to importation or trafficking, or to non-residents, which is consistent with Diaz facing prosecution despite the personal-use reform. Separately, MaltaToday has reported at least one case in which charges were dropped after a change in law decriminalized certain seized products, an example our database lists as a distinct, more recent development in how Maltese courts are applying the cannabis statute.

Calls for Tighter Rules

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has urged the government to review the country's cannabis legislation, arguing enforcement authorities need clearer legal powers, according to Newsbook. MHRA president Tony Zahra said Malta "warmly welcomes those who respect our country," but that "those who abuse our hospitality through violence, drugs, excessive noise or anti-social behaviour must face zero tolerance," per the same report. The association stopped short of calling for personal-use legalisation to be reversed, Newsbook noted, instead asking that the law be assessed to ensure it does not send "the wrong message that Malta is permissive towards drug use."

What to Watch

Whether the Diaz sentence signals tougher court outcomes for large-scale trafficking cases specifically, as opposed to personal-use offences, remains to be seen; the cases in our database show sentences ranging from four to fifteen years depending on quantity and circumstances, suggesting courts are weighing drug volume heavily. It is also unclear whether the MHRA's push for legislative review will lead to any formal proposal, as the association's public statement did not specify concrete changes to cannabis law, only a general request for clarity in enforcement powers.