A defendant in a drugs trial yesterday claimed he thought he was collecting Christmas presents from Federal Express — but it turned out to be cocaine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Andre Hill said he was picking up the packages on behalf of co-accused Raynol Todd, whose bad back meant he was unable to collect them himself on Christmas Eve 2004.

Hill said he only realised they contained drugs when Police arrested him — and at first he thought it was a silly prank. Hill, 53, and Todd, 51, deny conspiring to import $300,000 worth of cocaine into Bermuda, with Hill further pleading not guilty to an allegation of handling the drugs with intent to supply them.

The jury has previously heard how Hill collected three boxes from FedEx, which a Customs Officer had already told Police contained suspicious contents.

Hill was arrested as he left the office with the boxes, and immediately told Police the packages were for Todd. Officers then found Todd sitting in a car nearby and arrested him.

Taking to the stand on day eight of the trial yesterday, Hill said: "Mr. Todd explained to me that he had a few things to do in Hamilton himself.

"He then asked me if I would do him a small favour. The favour was for me to go to FedEx to pick up some boxes that were for his family for Christmas."

Asked by his lawyer Rick Woolridge if he agreed, Hill responded: "Of course. Mr. Todd at this particular time was a lot more shaky than he is now."

Hill said he was denied permission to collect the parcels because he did not have a note from the intended recipient, Angela Bassett. Later, Todd picked Hill up in his car and said they needed to go and visit Ms Bassett, who he described as a sister-in-law.

Hill remarked: "I asked him where he was going. He said he was going to St. David's!

"I told him there's no time for me to go to St. David's. It's impossible. Time was against me — I had some shopping to do.

"I foolishly decided to write the note myself just to save time, precious time, because I too, like I said, had to do some shopping for my family."

Hill said Todd then dropped him back off at FedEx.

Hill went in and handed over the note before collecting the goods 20 minutes later and making his way outside.

"There was Police. They were coming in my direction," he said.

"As they got close to me, I remember saying under my breath: 'You guys work fast.' That was a reference to me writing the disgusting letter."

He said when he was told the packages contained drugs he thought it was a silly prank — but he soon realised it wasn't when he was arrested.

As the Police car made its way to the station, it passed Todd's car in the Belco car park. "I told the officer that there's Mr. Todd right there in that little white car," he said. "There's Mr. Todd, right there, sitting in his car."

Shortly afterwards, Todd was arrested. Todd has previously denied sending Hill to collect the packages and claims he was resting at Belco because he was tired.

The ill health of both defendants has been a feature of the trial and the trend continued yesterday shortly before lunch, when Hill appeared to faint in the witness box while under cross-examination from Todd's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher. He recovered for the afternoon session.

Meanwhile Todd, who walks with crutches, frequently complained about his bad back when he was giving evidence earlier this week.

Judge Carlisle Greaves has given both permission to sit in the area usually reserved for the press instead of the dock.

Over the past few days there has been confusion over the strength of the friendship between the two defendants, and about why they were spending time together before Christmas 2004.

They have known each other since their school days, but Todd said they had not been friends since they were about 17 or 18. He said he now considered Hill "an associate".

Todd has said he had visited Hill because he was buying a sailing boat and wanted to tap into Hill's expertise, given that Hill had experience in painting boats.

Yesterday, Hill denied ever working with or painting boats and said he had not talked about boats to Todd in the run-up to Christmas 2004.