A 60-year-old woman who allegedly smuggled cannabis into Bermuda was among a plane load of passengers who all had their bags searched after arriving from Jamaica, Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Priscilla Delores Williams, of Bulkhead Drive, Warwick, is alleged to have imported 153.9 grams of the drug, and to have possessed it with intent to supply after returning to the Island on a Planet Airways charter flight on January 5.

Customs Officer Otto Trott told a jury yesterday that Williams was in a group of three ladies who arrived at the baggage hall at Bermuda International Airport around 10 p.m .

He said he had asked Williams if she had any gifts or anything that anyone had given her, to which she replied no. She also indicated that she had packed her bag herself.

He searched her bag, and at this point a Police dog arrived and alerted its handler to a brown cardboard liquor box that Williams had on the floor behind the counter, he said.

When he took out three bottles of Jamaican rum that were inside the box, he saw an extra layer of cardboard inside which he cut away with a knife to reveal the cannabis.

He reported that he heard Williams remark to herself: "Why would someone give me drugs? I have not travelled in 30 years."

Mr. Trott told the court that every member of the Planet Airways flight had been searched and that there had been an altercation between the Police and some of the passengers from that flight including one of the women accompanying Williams.

Detective Constable Trevor Knight of the Police Narcotics Division said he had been present when Williams was questioned at the airport Police station after being arrested.

He read the jury an extract from notes taken during an interview where Williams stated that the box was a gift bought by someone else for a friend of hers named Robin. She claimed to have been told that it contained a bottle of wine.

Det. Con. Knight explained that there had been extra narcotics officers on duty at the Airport on the night in question because this is a customary procedure when a charter flight comes into Bermuda from Jamaica.

Williams denies both of the charges against her, and the case continues.