A Colombian man who last week admitted in court to conspiracy to traffic drugs, had been promised €3,000 to deliver cocaine from Eindhoven to Malta, a court was told today.

Alexander Restrepo Diaz, 36, was arrested at Malta airport on Tuesday last week. He was carrying 52 capsules containing half a kilogram of cocaine in his underpants.

Police Inspector Johann Fenech said that police investigations showed that in 2005 Diaz had been arrested in Spain carrying 800 grams of cocaine in his underpants.

The accused had come to Malta three times. In his first two visits he came with his wife and two children.

He had told the police that he had met a man on a beach and was told he could make easy money by carrying the drugs from The Netherlands.

Diaz had travelled to Eindhoven from Malta and received the drug from two African men. He did not know who he was to deliver the drugs to, other than that the person's name was Omero or Omera, but he did not have a contact number.The accused told police he was ready to help in a controlled delivery and insisted that such an operation be carried out. The police, however, felt that a controlled delivery in Qawra, also involving a person they did not know anything about, was too risky.

However investigations are continuing.