A security guard who tried to smuggle more than $260,000 worth of cannabis hidden in his suitcases into Bermuda has been jailed.

Zicco Pearman was caught with 12 packages of drugs stashed in the inside linings of his two bags when he arrived at LF Wade International Airport from New York last July.

At Supreme Court on Tuesday, the father of one, who had no previous convictions, was jailed for four years by Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves.

Pearman, 26, of Rockaway Drive, Southampton arrived on the Island on a JetBlue flight on July 30 after spending four days in New York

His belongings were searched by customs officers who discovered that the inside lining of one of Pearman’s suitcases was backwards and inside out.

Asked about it, he told the officer that he had purchased the suitcase from someone on the street for $59 while he was away.

The customs officer subsequently removed the lining and found six black packages hidden in the base of the suitcase.

A further six packages were found hidden in a similar fashion in his second suitcase.

In total the 12 packages contained 5,367 grams of cannabis worth more than $268,000 if sold on the streets of Bermuda.

After the drugs were discovered, he told customs officers that he had left both suitcases with a driver while he went shopping, and that they were subsequently dropped off at his hotel.

At trial he maintained that he knew nothing about the packages or what they contained.

But in June Pearman was convicted by a jury of importing a controlled drug by a majority verdict of nine to three.

Sentencing Pearman yesterday Judge Greaves said: “The only mitigating factor in this is that the defendant was of previous good character with no previous convictions.

Prosecutor Victoria Greening said that Pearman still maintained his innocence in the social inquiry report.

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