Italian Court Jails Briton for Ecstasy Smuggling

An appeal court in Trieste yesterday sentenced a 28-year-old Briton to three years and eight months' imprisonment for his role in Europe's biggest ecstasy smuggling operation.

Alex Bruell, the son of a Hollywood psychologist and the London socialite Biba Hiller, plea-bargained a reduction in his original 4 year sentence for drug smuggling. His accomplice, Australian journalist Simon Main, had his sentence cut from eight to six years.

The two men were arrested in north-east Italy in April 2000 as they prepared to smuggle 333,000 ecstasy tablets, with a street value of almost £7m, into the United States. Police, who had been intercepting the two men's phone calls, found the haul in two hold-alls in the boot of Mr Bruell's car as he prepared to hand it over to the California-based Australian for shipment to the US.

An earlier consignment of 125,000 tablets had successfully crossed the Atlantic in a shipment of furniture.

Mr Bruell, who has collaborated with Italian investigators, is expected to win early release in about six months.