James Portelli, 32, of Kalkara, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras after he was caught red-handed by police passing on four packets of heroin to another person.
He admitted to the crime close to a school on 31 May and was also fined €600. The admission did not arrive at the start of the proceedings and therefore Portelli did not benefit from a lenient sentence because he still wasted the court’s time, the magistrate ruled.