The 41-year-old convicted drug trafficker nicknamed by a judge as the “queen of prison”, Josette Bickle, died yesterday morning after being taken ill in her prison cell.

Ms Bickle, who earned the ‘royal’ position because of her grip on female prisoners at the Corradino Correctional Facility, was serving a 12-year sentence after being convicted of drug trafficking inside prison.

Sources said Ms Bickle, originally of Valletta, was taken ill in her cell and rang the buzzer for assistance at around 6.30am.

She shared her cell with Charmaine Vella, who is in jail over a string of thefts.

Ms Bickle told the prison warder she was suffering from severe shortness of breath. The warder immediately called for the prison nurse who, on seeing the state she was in, called for an ambulance. The ambulance left prison at 7am and rushed her to Mater Dei Hospital where she died at 7.35am. A relative who called The Times yesterday said Ms Bickle had died in prison but sources said she was still alive when she arrived at hospital.

Sources said although an autopsy will be carried out today to establish the exact cause of death, preliminary medical examinations showed she had suffered a heart attack.

Sources said Drug Squad police searched the cell yesterday but found no traces of drugs or items related to drug abuse. Moreover, cannabis and heroin, the two types of drugs one can find in prison, do not cause the shortness of breath that was Ms Bickle’s complaint.

Toxicology tests will shed more light on what caused the death, which could be a knock-on effect of drug usage and chain smoking over the years.

The case involving Ms Bickle caused national outrage last December when Judge Michael Mallia lambasted prison authorities over the “ease” with which the “queen of prison” managed to smuggle drugs into jail. He said there seemed to have been “collusion” with the prison authorities.

“The jurors’ verdict is not only a verdict against Josette Bickle but against the system which allowed her to operate with so much impunity for so long,” Mr Justice Mallia had said in the judgment.

The court’s main concern was that Ms Bickle acted in this way for two years under the eyes of the warders and prison officials.

It was impossible that they did not know what was going on, more so when drug abuse took place in the cells and the smell spread to the corridors where the warders were, the court had said.

The trial heard how Ms Bickle trafficked drugs in prison and treated other prisoners as her slaves. The trial was also told that she had four television sets and a sound surround system in her cell.

Apart from the 12-year term, she had also been fined €23,000.

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