Honorary French Consul Edgar Humann has branded the 18-year sentence given to West African drug mule Yaloo Celtius Mitchai too harsh.

Assistant Justice Archibald Warner said in the Supreme Court on Friday he had to send a strong message to foreigners who thought Bermuda was a soft place to import drugs.

Mr. Humann said the sentence did not reflect Mitchai's willingness to take part in a sting operation to nab the local connections involved in importing the $2.6 million of heroin.

And he said the sentence was actually longer than the prosecution had requested.

In the Supreme Court on Friday Crown counsel Cindy Clarke had asked for a sentence between 13 and 16 years for Mitchai - a student - who is from the former French colony of Benin but has French nationality.

Mr. Human said: “I am delighted the Police caught a person importing drugs and I admire Assistant Justice Archibald Warner's strong stand against drugs. But what surprised me is I don't think Mr. Mitchai was given sufficient credit for offering to co-operate with the Police and pull a sting to catch the real people who wanted to bring in $2.6 million of this poison and sell it on the streets of Bermuda.

“We are going to appeal this sentence. I have great confidence in the system.”

He said Mitchai was holiday in the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao when he was approached by a Nigerian who persuaded him to swallow the drugs and come to Bermuda. The French speaking 22-year-old Mitchai flew into Bermuda on March 2 but Customs officials became suspicious when he said he'd come to see the Bermuda Triangle.

Mitchai denied having drugs. Subsequently, he was transported to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where he declined medical attention and refused to be X-rayed. But Mr. Humann said he then persuaded Mitchai to cooperate and he passed 75 pellets between March 3 and March 6.

Mitchai later admitted to swallowing the drugs in Curacao for a man called “Nana” and he pleaded guilty on August 5.

Mr. Humann said a member of Mitchai's family had been to Curacao and had managed to trace Nana and had given that information to Michai's lawyer Liz Christopher and the French Police. He said Mitchai had wanted the information to go to the Bermuda Police.

“I was very surprised they didn't accept the offer to pull a sting. I feel as strongly about drugs as Justice Warner but as French Consul I don't want to see a French citizen used as a scapegoat. I am a little bit disturbed by that. He should be punished but he's not the real villain. Mules are a dime a dozen.

“The real culprits are the people who give the drugs (to mules) and pick them up and distribute them in the community. What we should really do is find the bad Bermudians and send them to jail for a long time rather than pick on the mules.”

Mr. Humann did not say what he thought the sentence should have been but he hopes Mitchai will be allowed to serve his term in France.