Career criminal Alfred Bugeja, better known by the nickname Il-Porporina, was today jailed for seven years and fined €11,500 for organising a drug deal from his prison cell.

The 59-year-old was found guilty of conspiring to import two kilogrammes of cocaine, one kilogramme of heroin and around 2,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands in May 2002.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale heard how Mr Bugeja, who at the time was a prison inmate, had been approached by another prisoner, Emanuel Camilleri, known as Leli l-bully, and asked to find someone to go with him to Holland and purchase the drugs.

The men were to take $46,000 and Lm7,000 to purchase the drugs and deliver them to Malta.

Mr Bugeja was promised the 2000 ecstasy pills while his accomplice would have received €2,330.

He accepted the offer without hesitation and asked his brother to assist after another of his brothers had refused to participate in the illicit deal.

The court heard how Mr Bugeja had made the necessary arrangements upon his release from prison but he was not contacted by Mr Camilleri, who in the meantime had found another partner in crime.

Handing down judgment, Magistrate Depasquale noted how the consignment of drugs had never made it to Malta after having been intercepted in a joint operation between the Italian and Maltese police.

The magistrate said that had the drug made it to Malta, the devastation it would have had on many Maltese youths would have been great. He also referred to Mr Bugeja’s “never-ending” criminal convictions and noted how Mr Bugeja seemed to have “no respect towards the law”.

“Had he not been in prison, the court is convinced that Mr Bugeja would have found ways of involving himself in criminal activities to the detriment of many youths who are afflicted by the drug habit,” the court said as it imprisoned him for a further seven years.

Last week, Mr Camilleri was jailed for 11 years and fined €20,000 for his involvement in the same drug deal.