A traveller who was stopped at the airport with more than a kilo of drugs in his luggage lied about being set up, it was suggested in Supreme Court yesterday.

Crown counsel Patrick Doherty made the submission as he was cross-examining 48-year-old Jaha Akilly Mallory, who was arrested after he arrived on a flight from the United Kingdom on January 15.

Narcotics Police and customs officers discovered several packages of cocaine and cannabis resin hidden in the lining of his two suitcases.

Mallory, of Elliott Street, Hamilton, denies importing and possessing 1.2 kilograms of cocaine with intent to supply, but admits bringing in and possessing 139 grams of marijuana with intent to supply.

In response to questions from his lawyer Mark Pettingill, Mallory, a Rastafarian, admitted he was trying to import cannabis "for use as a sacrament among my brethren and sistren''.

But he said he thought that between two and five pounds of it had been hidden in the bottoms of three cooking pots rather than in the suitcase supports.

And he denied that he knew there was any amount of cocaine in his luggage.

"I don't use that stuff and if I had known it was in those bags, I definitely wouldn't have agreed to take them.'' Mallory said he was asked to smuggle the cannabis while he was in Jamaica by a drug dealer called Ron Lynn.

He said he thought the cooking pots were "prepared'' prior to his departure by Mr. Lynn, who also gave him the suitcases with which to carry them.

Yesterday, Mr. Doherty suggested the defendant had made up his story about being the victim of a set up.

And he suggested that "you just gave the Police any old name to support your false story''.

He added he thought Mallory "knew perfectly well'' he had the cocaine in his suitcases and that his payment for the smuggling operation was the cannabis resin.

Mr. Doherty also suggested he used the cooking pots "as a decoy'' to distract the authorities from where the drugs really were.

He quizzed Mallory on why he told his girlfriend he had been "screwed with coke'' before the white powder had even been tested by the Government analyst and revealed to be cocaine.

And Mr. Doherty put it to the defendant that the only lie he told Customs officers on the night of his arrest was not about the cooking pots, but about the suitcases and where he had got them from.

In his address, Mallory's lawyer Mark Pettingill urged the jury to give his client the "benefit of the doubt'' in deciding their verdict.

He asked them to put aside their feelings regarding drugs and to look simply at the facts in hand.

"And if they raise any doubt in your minds, then you must acquit him,'' Mr.

Pettingill said.

The trial continues today before Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons.