A senior police officer said in court yesterday telephone calls were made from prison to a man being charged with conspiring to deal in drugs over the course of seven years.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman yesterday started hearing evidence in the compilation of evidence in the case of 31-year-old Hasan Bel Salah who last week was extradited to Malta from Holland to face drug-related charges.

Police Superintendent Neil Harrison, prosecuting, told the court the police had intercepted 34 telephone calls made to the accused from the Corradino Correctional Facility between 2001 and 2002.

These telephone calls were made by Mario Camilleri (L-Imniehru), Charles Muscat (Il-Pips) and other prison inmates. It also resulted from the calls that the accused was trafficking in drugs.

Supt Harrison testified that in 1999 the police were informed that cocaine was being sold in Malta by a young man who spoke Dutch. The police had made three large seizures of drugs over a number of years. These consisted of two kilogrammes of cocaine at the seaport in 2001, two kilogrammes of cocaine in Catania in 2002 and six kilogrammes of cocaine in a container last year.

The prosecution is alleging that the accused had supplied and trafficked the drugs to Malta.

The Dutch police contacted their counterparts in Malta last year saying that a certain Paul Debattista (Il-Bloqq) from Paola, whom the police suspected to be a big drug trafficker, had been arrested in Holland together with the accused on money laundering charges. The two men had been found guilty of the charges.

Previously, in 2004, Mr Debattista had been charged with attempted murder after he drove a vehicle in the direction of two policemen. Supt Harrison told the court he had heard the telephone calls made to the accused and had identified the voice of the accused.

Fellow prosecuting officer, Police Inspector Norbert Ciappara testified on the work the police had carried out when six kilogrammes of cocaine were found in a container last year. The police, he said, had immediately suspected the involvement of the accused.

Lawyer Emmanuel Mallia was defence counsel.