A 42-year-old Warwick man accused of importing over $100,000 worth of cannabis last year pleaded not guilty at Supreme Court yesterday.

Terrance Vancouver Caines, of Tribe 2 Road, denied importing over 2,000 grams of cannabis in reel-to reel containers on July 27, 2004.

Caines told Customs officers that the containers held tapes in them at the Bermuda International Airport after he arrived on a flight from London.

A Customs officer, Peggy Ann Bean, decided to put the containers under an X-ray machine. She told the court that when she placed the containers on the machine Caines exclaimed: ?I have to use the bathroom?. She told Caines he would have to wait.

Crown counsel Shakira Dill asked the officer what she felt after Caines said this and Ms Bean replied that it made her suspicious. She also told the court that Caines was rocking back and forth like a child who needed to to use the bathroom.

The X-ray showed that there were items in the case and not tape reel

P.c. Andrew Woolridge told the court a large quantity of plant material was discovered in the containers. He added Caines would not answer questions put to him by officers and that all he said was, ?silence is the secret to success?.

Caines, who is represented by Larry Scott, took the stand late in the day and told the court: ?I am not a drug dealer. I have no reason to bring drugs into Bermuda. I am very talented and creative. I have too much to lose.?

Caines told the court that he had brought the reel-to-reel tapes to Jamaica before he travelled to the UK and then on to Bermuda. While in Jamaica Caines said he recorded nature sounds which he wanted to use in spiritual presentations. He told the court that he gave the reel-to-reel tapes, as well as the recordings, to a man in Jamaica named ?Base Cleft? who was willing to transfer the recording on to the reel-to-reel tapes. After a week with no word from Base Cleft, Caines told the court he asked for his tapes back.

Caines said the tapes were returned, but that Base Cleft had not transferred the recordings to the reel-to-reel tapes. He told the court that the cases were couriered to him by Base Cleft, whose office is a trailer with over 100 similar cases in it. Caines said he did not thoroughly inspect the reel-to-reel cases when they were returned. He packed them in his bag and took them with him to Wales, where he stayed for six months.

According to Caines the containers were not touched during the six months because he had no need of them because no work had been transferred on to the tapes.

Caines brought the containers into Bermuda when he returned on the British Airways evening flight and said he had no idea that he was carrying drugs.

?I had no reason to suspect anything like that,? Caines said.

Puisne Judge Charles Etta Simmons is presiding over the case, which will begin at 11 a.m. with Ms Dill?s cross-examination of Caines.