An alleged drugs mule said he tried to change his ticket before boarding a flight to Bermuda where he was caught with 66 pellets of cocaine and cannabis.

In Supreme Court yesterday, Jamie Edward Cox, 27, of Altenkessel in Germany, said that Continental Airlines in New Jersey told him that the fastest route to London with his ticket was to fly from New Jersey to Bermuda return on the same day for the London flight from Newark that night.

Cox faces four charges of importation and possession of cannabis and cocaine with intent to supply on July 20, 2003.

?I asked (the Continental representative) if I can use the same ticket to fly straight to England,? Cox said. ?She said she can?t change the ticket, but she can change the reservation, so when I reach Bermuda I can fly the same day.?

When he arrived in Bermuda, he asked to be sent to the airport?s transit lounge because he was returning to New Jersey that day.

?(Immigration) explained that was how it is in Bermuda, there is no transit area.?

In the baggage collection area, he said a (customs officer) asked him if he had any luggage, and he told her, ?his luggage was being shipped to England?.

?She asked me if I just came into Bermuda on Continental Airlines and I explained: ?Yes, I was on a stop over?. She said that still your luggage needs has to come off and then they put it on the next flight, Cox said.

But soon afterwards, another Customs Officer said he wanted to strip search him.

It was after this search that Police took Cox to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where Det. Con. Woolridge Mathurin watched him pass the first 34 drug-filled pellets.

Cox also told the jury about what he said happened to him in Jamaica, before boarding the Continental flight.

Cox said he was born in England, but was raised in Germany. He said he was studying linguistics, spoke German, French, Italian and English and worked part time as a translator at the European Parliament in Brussels, where he earned 147 euros per day.

He said he met a woman in Jamaica named Natalie Clark in 1999 at the time of his grandmother?s funeral. It was with Ms Clark that he had a daughter, Khadidia.

He said he bought his ticket to Jamaica at a special price which meant it was nonchangeable.

Cox said he stayed on in Jamaica because his daughter was sick but met some guys to lend him some money.

?Enough to buy a new ticket and leave some money for my daughter,? Cox said.

Cox said that ?one of the guys? loaned him money but soon after ?Ian? called to say: ?I hear you are still going to Europe via Bermuda.?

One morning ?Dexter and Clive? burst into his room and hit him ?in the mouth? and ?on the back of the head with a gun?.

Victoria Pearman asked him if this wound was still ?fresh when he came to Bermuda? and Cox said that it was.

Dexter and Clive said Cox owed them US $4,000. But Cox denied it.

He said they took him to a travel agency where they bought his ticket to Europe via Bermuda. ?Then later that night I wanted to leave. They refused to let me go,? Cox said.

The next morning he was taken to a hotel room where ?Ian, Bling and Dexter? were and where he saw ?a bottle with grey liquid, some rope, some tape and some machetes,? he said.

He said the pellets were in the room and when he refused to swallow any, Dexter said ?let?s start the deformation?. He said one of the men grabbed his head and dropped two drops of acid on his head.

?They said to swallow the tablets and take it to Errol, or something will happen.?

He said he spent six hours swallowing the tablets before he was taken to the airport.

?They started talking to me about how to behave, to not try any tricks if I want to come back to Jamaica to see my daughter again,? Cox said. Once he left Jamaica he said he began to look for a British consulate but when he only got an answering machine, he went to the Continental desk to change his ticket.

Yesterday morning, Ms Pearman asked Det. Con. Woolridge Mathurin whether Cox had told him he had been threatened.

?Did he tell you that his daughter was threatened?? Ms Pearman asked. However, Det. Con Mathurin said that Cox said no such thing.

She also asked if Det. Con. Mathurin recalled Cox telling him that some people in Jamaica told Cox: ?You can?t leave here until you pay us money that you owe us??

And Det. Con. Mathurin said that he did remember that Cox said that.

She asked him if two of the Cox?s friends in Jamaica ?had connections in Bermuda??

?Yes, two of them were Bermudians,? he said.

Crown counsel Graveney Bannister continued his examination of Police witness, Det. Con. Mathurin.

Mr. Bannister asked Det. Con. Mathurin what happened at 9.17 p.m. on July 25, 2003, after Cox had been released from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Det. Con. Mathurin said that he formally charged the defendant. Mr. Bannister asked if he recalled whether Cox said anything after he was charged: ?It?s not mine, they pushed me to carry it,? Det. Con. Mathurin replied.

The trial continues this morning.