A man caught “callously” smuggling more than $130,000 of cannabis in a tent has been jailed for 18 months.

Vain Waldron, 49, from Happy Valley, Pembroke, denied importing cannabis into the Island on May 25 last year and possessing the drugs with intent to supply, but he was convicted in Magistrates’ Court yesterday after a two-day trial.

The court heard Waldron arrived on the Island that morning on a flight from New York. A customs search uncovered six tape-wrapped packages rolled up in a tent.

They were later found to contain 2,646.8 grams of cannabis, which if sold in half-gram twists could fetch as much as $132,350 on the streets of Bermuda.

Waldron told the court that he had travelled to New York for an undisclosed personal matter and, while there, met Edwin Jones, a friend he had not seen in 37 years.

He said they caught up over several days, and on the morning Waldron was set to return to the Island, Mr Jones arrived at his Brooklyn hotel unsolicited to offer him a ride to the airport.

Waldron claimed that Mr Jones asked him to take a maroon bag containing a tent back to Bermuda with him, saying it would be collected by a third friend, Jean Smith.

Waldron agreed, saying he only discovered the bag contained cannabis when customs officers unrolled the tent in front of him.

Customs officer Lalisha Simmons testified that Waldron claimed he had bought the tent from a store and camped every year.

She also told the court that when asked who the packages were for, Waldron replied that they were his.

Waldron refuted the officer’s testimony, telling the court he made no such comments, but admitted that he said nothing about Mr Jones or Mr Smith. Magistrate Archibald Warner said it was undisputed that Waldron had imported the cannabis and was in possession of the drugs, but that the Crown needed to show he knew, suspected or had reason to suspect that drugs were in the bag.

He described Waldron’s story about meeting a long-lost friend in New York as “bizarre”, and accepted Ms Simmons’s testimony about the comments he made during the search.

“I totally reject that he was given the bag by Edwin Jones to bring back to Bermuda and that he had no idea what was in the bag,” Mr Warner said.

“Having rejected his story for those reasons, his lines of defence have faltered.”

Mr Warner convicted Waldron of both charges. Defence lawyer Arion Mapp requested a social inquiry report be carried out before sentencing, but Mr Warner refused the request and moved immediately to sentencing.

Crown counsel Kenlyn Swan suggested a jail term of 18 months but Mr Mapp argued that a non-custodial sentence could be appropriate given that Waldron had already spent nearly five months in custody, noting both his previous good character and low likelihood of reoffending.

But Mr Warner said the Crown’s suggestion was “rather lenient”, and that a non-custodial sentence was not appropriate given the quantity of drugs seized.

“For this amount of drugs, you have got to go to jail,” Mr Warner said.

Waldron told the court: “I’m just sorry for what happened.

“I didn’t go away to bring drugs back. I did not know that drugs were in the bag.”

After considering the facts of the case, Mr Warner said the case was a “callous importation of a significant amount of drugs” and sentenced Waldron to 18 months in prison.

He ordered that the time served in custody since September 15 should be taken into account.