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Prosecutors are set to detail Amanda Knox’s disturbing links to local cocaine dealers as part of their bid to extradite Meredith Kercher’s killer to Italy to face justice.

The American defiantly refused to return to Perugia for her re-trial this year, in which her and her ex-lover Raffaele Sollecito were re-convicted of the British student’s murder.

However, now the 26-year-old’s appeal against the guilty verdict is in jeopardy after lawyers poised to use her drug links and pressed ahead with plans to force her back Italy on an extradition warrant.

The development comes just two days after Sollecito, 30, dramatically abandoned his former lover by claiming “anomalies in her version of events” over the 21-year-old’s murder.

During their first trial in 2009 lawyers alleged Meredith’s killers had acted during a drug-fuelled frenzy when she was brutally stabbed to death at the home she shared with Knox in Perugia.

Lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini argued Knox, Sollecito and local dealer Rudy Guede, who was previously convicted of the Leeds University student’s murder, all acted “under the fumes of drugs and alcohol”.

(Image: PA)

But details have now emerged alleging Knox had a known drug dealer’s number stored in her phone at the time with police claiming they discovered calls between her and the supplier’s mobile in the days before and after the murder.

Local media stated the numbers on her mobile helped lead to the discovery of a “drug ring for university students and professionals.”

They claimed a police report attached to Knox’s file that stated that “in the course of the investigation regarding the criminal proceedings 9066/07 [Kercher’s murder] they discovered that an Italian person from time to time replenished Amanda Knox’s narcotic substances, as well as having allegedly had with her the relationship of a sexual nature”.

A local man was later sentenced to two years and eight months for dealing cocaine with the help of information allegedly taken from the American’s phone.

During their re-trial, Meredith’s family attorney Vieri Enrico Faviani told the court in December: “We have seen that all of this happened in conjunction with taking drugs.”

Details of Knox’s finances while in Italy have also shown how she was bleeding cash from her accounts at an alarmingly high rate raising further suspicion among prosecution lawyers.

Knox’s transaction history from WaMu bank in the summer of 2007 - which she released on her own website - shows she spent roughly $638 (£371) in Seattle in the month of July before leaving for Italy.

In August, her spending skyrocketed to a whopping $2,765.33 (£1,610).

(Image: AFP)

That time did include travel to Germany, but still clocked in at nearly four times the $750 (£436) per month the local Umbra study abroad programs advises students to budget for typical expenses while abroad.

In September, she withdrew $2,452.60 (£1,428) from European ATMs,

generally taking out in excess of $300 (£174) in cash each time. And in October, she took out $1,637.25 (£953), all in cash.

In the first week of the month alone, she withdrew more than $700 (£407).

Knox, along with Sollecito, were found guilty of her murder in 2009 but were freed on appeal two years later.

The former couple were however retried earlier this year and once again found guilty.

Knox, of Seattle, Washington, refused to return for the trial and has since stated she will never return to Italy to serve her 28 year sentence if the guilty verdict is ratified by Italy’s Supreme court later this year.

On Monday, Sollecito held a press conference during which he made his u-turn saying he could no longer be sure he was with Knox the night Meredith, of Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in November 2007 .

He did however state he still believed her innocent of Meredith’s murder.