A man charged with importing more than 17 kilos of cannabis worth $800,000 has fled the Island, despite having his passports confiscated.

Dennis Wright, 28, was charged. His co-defendants Kyle Ingham, 25, and Kenneth Butterfield, 33, admitted their guilt on Monday.

Yesterday, Wright's mother and a friend, Cindy Caisey and Ralph Robinson appeared before the Supreme Court as they had signed sureties on his $30,000 bail. Crown counsel Robert Welling told the court Wright flew to Canada on September 15 and entered the US three days later.

"That is where we believe he is now," Mr. Welling said. "In order to pass into the US, he needed another passport, which I understand was a US passport."

A Bermuda passport and a US passport were seized as a condition of his $30,000 bail. Ms Caisey said she had been in occasional contact with her son until around September 19.

"I had been calling him, but I could never get him. I didn't know where he was," she said. "Then he called me and told me he was away. He just left. I never thought my son would leave."