The “king of cocaine” Godfrey Ellul, who is serving an 18-year jail term, yesterday had another two-year prison sentence reduced to 15 months on appeal.

The 63-year-old self-declared cocaine addict was jailed for 18 years in 2007 and fined €42,000 for trafficking in cocaine and cannabis between December 2001 and July 2002.

During that trial the prosecutor had described Mr Ellul as the king of cocaine, a well-known and hardened trafficker.

In a separate case, Mr Ellul had been found guilty of possessing cocaine in March 2002 in circumstances which denoted the drug was not for his exclusive use and sent to prison for two years.

He appealed that sentence arguing that had he been arraigned on the crimes at one go instead of separately, he would have been able to benefit from a reduction in punishment.

Referring to a judgment handed down by former Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice David Scicluna ruled that this was indeed the case under law. He, therefore, reduced the sentence to 15 months.