They're very clean people
Published:
January 14, 2009 at 8:39am
The news today is that 30kg of green-coloured bars seized by the police from a yacht on December 27 turned out to be soap and not cannabis, as initially suspected. This information was given in court.
Now what I’d like to know is this: why would a person have 30kg of green soap on a boat?
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Green soap? Reminds me of some horrid smelling soap my mum used to buy in the good ole days! Now, if more than a few ounces of drugs make the person liable of drug-trafficking offences, what about 30kg of soap? I’m sure that this soap was not on the yacht to be used by the persons on board. Maybe bought from a Sicilian flea market, again, like the good ole days?
Maybe they were embarking on a Keep the Seas Clean campaign?
Because they were all fooled! they thought they were importing cannabis…boloh! u xejn iktar
[Daphne – Well, in that case I hope they get the same treatment as was meted out to the Englishman with the pills that turned out not to be ecstasy.]
i would guess they had a suspicion they were being observed. what better way to find out?
Maybe they thought it was cannabis, not soap.
@DCG
Yes,excellent question, but we know that everything is possible in Malta!
What I cannot understand is why the police did not test the “soap” that was siezed. How did they arraign the accused without this knowledge?
Daphne, with all due respect but it’s nobody’s business why they had a load of soap unless it was illegal to do so.
[Daphne – Agreed, except that now it has ended up in court it’s everyone’s business, especially as they appear to have thought it was cannabis themselves.]
Soap can be used to make napalm, especially if it’s pure soap, with no perfume and stuff added. It can also be used to make explosives by extracting the glycerine content.
[Daphne – Yes, now I remember that from chemistry lessons…not that they taught us how to make explosives, of course, but it must have been a lesson about the chemical composition of soap.]
And it’s not the “glycerine content”, but extracting glycerine via a chemical reaction using sulphuric acid etc etc. My chemistry is a trifle rusty, I’m afraid.
According to the police, they got a an anonymous tip-off about the “soap”, and off they went in pursuit. Meanwhile, elsewhere…….
Whoever it is, he sounds like a slippery character. Or is he squeaky clean?
Adrian Borg: Because the accused thought they were importing cannabis. It’s incidental that the drug turned out to be soap. Why would anyone go to Libya on a yacht to import 30 kilos of soap?
[Daphne – Perhaps Anthony Zammit has discovered an interesting new fetish involving bars of soap and wanted a bulk supply with no questions asked.]
Hence the Maltese expression “Kemm ghandek sapun”
All the makings of a soap opera there….
Picture this situation:
Someone pulls the trigger of a gun, which he believes is fully loaded, and which is aimed at the head of someone else – only the gun contains a rubber bullet and not a real one.
This means the intention to kill or to cause injury is there, and that the person has not only formed the intention but has acted on it. The crime has therefore been, technically speaking, committed.
However, because of a factor (the rubber bullet) that is independent of the both the “murderer’s” intention and actions, the murder did not actually take place.
This is what the law defines as an attempted crime. It means that all other elements of the full crime were there, but that something occurred independently of the intention and actions of the person committing the crime.
This is why the persons on that boat are being charged with the attempt to import drugs, and not with the actual importation. In their mind and in their actions, they were importing cannabis … but because of an element beyond their intention and action (i.e. someone substituted the cannabis with soap, duping them in the process), the full crime could not take place.
Hope that explanation wasn’t too technical …
I remember that somebody once turned water into wine. My guess is that there could have been some divine intervention!
I agree with Pablo…….a tip-off sends the security forces to point X….and in the meantime point Y is beyond them, with people free to do as they please!
So now there are two sailing yachts impounded to rot next to the patrol boats, the Hawkwind illegally importing birds and the Jolly Roger green soap. A 200-mile trip plus at 5.5mph in this weather to import soap, mela.
Malcolm,
Someone appears to have turned ‘wine’ into ‘water’–a devilish intervention!
You see … sometimes it pays to be stupid! They must be thanking their lucky stars for being such imbeciles.
[Daphne – Not really. Given the recent judgement on the ecstasy that wasn’t, they can get life for soap, because it’s the intention that counts.]
@ Daphne
“they can get life for soap”
They deserve some leniency for coming clean.
No wonder we’re Libya’s best (read: only) friend. Next thing you know, Sarkozy will be pushing for a new agreement between l’Oreal and some Libyan ‘soap’ company.
Hang on guys, less of the quips and more of the serious stuff please. These people, with their ”alleged” actions were intending to make thousands on your kids and mine. The fact that they were well and truly screwed by their suppliers is another matter, and as Daphne said, hopefully they will get their punishment, good and proper, in the same manner meted out to the Englishman who imported the pills.
Where’s the hanging judge?
Glycerin can be obtained in a very pure form and in large quantities from any local chemist, great stuff for blackening car tires too. no need to import it illegally.
My question is, why all this fuss about cannabis? It is less harmful than drunk driving for example. Why this persecution in Malta?
The moral of the story: don’t drop the soap … as you’ll suffer some consequences.
@Mark S.: Because, unlike alcohol, cannabis turns one into a giggling imbecile and compels one to write fruity pacifist songs.
@H.P.Baxxter:”Because, unlike alcohol, cannabis turns one into a giggling imbecile and compels one to write fruity pacifist songs.”
No need for cannabis….unless J.M. is on it.