The trial of an alleged drug mule shifted into high gear in the Supreme Court yesterday with testimony by two officers on their arrest of Jamie Edward Cox on suspicion of swallowing cannabis and cocaine.

Jamie Edward Cox, 26, of Pembroke is charged with bringing 66 pellets full of 150 grammes of cannabis and 361 grammes of cocaine with a street value of $125,750 to Bermuda on a commercial flight from New Jersey.

Customs officer Kenneth Simmons testified that Cox arrived on a Continental flight 1925 from Newark on July 20, 2003. Mr. Simmons said he was speaking to Cox about his lost luggage when he noticed Cox?s flight itinerary: Jamaica, USA, Bermuda, UK and became suspicious.

He escorted the defendant to a search room with another officer and gave him a personal search which came up negative. He asked Cox to sign a Customs x-ray consent form but he refused.

Narcotics P.c. Windol Thorpe said had spoken to Officer Simmons and Det. Con. Woolridge Mathurin who were at the airport who had ?reasonable grounds to suspect Mr. Cox was a swallower?.

When Crown counsel Graveney Bannister asked him what that meant, he said: ?A drug mule, someone who?s swallowed a controlled drug.?

At 3 p.m. on July 20, Police escorted Cox to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where he met Dr. Peter Babeckasin. When Cox refused to have his stomach x-rayed in front of the doctor, he was arrested under suspicion of importing a controlled drug.

P.c. Thorpe said that an hour later, Cox asked to use the bathroom in the emergency department, adding: ?He was escorted into the bathroom by Det. Con. Mathurin. I stood outside the door.

?Around 4.27 p.m. Det. Con. Mathurin and the defendant exited the room. I was made aware the defendant had excreted 34 pellets,? P.c. Thorpe said.

At 7.10 p.m. Cox was escorted by Police to room 3016 in Gordon Ward at KEMH. where P.c. Thorpe seized 11 more of the pellets.

?Eight red and three purple,? P.c. Thorpe added.

Cox?s lawyer, Victoria Pearman said P.c. Thorpe had made two errors in his report: The time Cox used the lavatory and incorrectly stating the number of a Police evidence bag.

She also said that the term drug mule implied that the defendant was ?bringing the drugs here for someone else?.

Ms Pearman also asked P.c. Thorpe whether he handcuffed Cox to his hospital bed.

?It is a judgment call based on the reaction of the defendant,? P.c. Thorpe replied.

As Ms Pearman Pressed him further, P.c. Thorpe said he ?did not recall?.

Mr. Bannister requested that the eight-woman, four-man jury be permitted to touch the evidence bags containing the drugs ? adding that he had brought two dozen gloves into court for that purpose.

But Justice Charles Etta Simmons denied the request, and asked P.c. Thorpe to hold the bags above his head instead as there ?was a risk of contamination?. The trial continues this morning.