A drug mule caught with “substantial” quantities of cannabis hidden inside a punching bag is likely to be jailed for smuggling, Magistrates’ Court heard.

Curtis Azhar, 42, of St Augustine Road in Pembroke, was caught with more than three kilos of the drug after being stopped by Customs officers as he came through LF Wade International Airport on March 17, 2014.

Returning from a three-day trip to Atlanta, Georgia, Azhar was carrying a boxing bag inside a black duffel bag.

Officers grew suspicious after speaking with him and an X-ray of the bag showed eight objects concealed inside.

Asked what they objects contained, Azhar replied: “I’m not 100 percent sure but I’m pretty sure it’s marijuana.”

According to prosecutor Karen King, packages were subsequently removed from the bag — six of them yielding smaller packages of plantlike material, and two containing a “brown, sand-like substance” that tested negative for the presence of drugs. The other contraband added up to 3,084.8 grammes of cannabis.

Ms King told the court that the drug was typically sold on the Island’s streets at $25 for a 0.5g twist, giving the cannabis a potential value of $154,250.

Azhar, who has no previous offences on his record, pleaded guilty to possession, and the Crown dropped an additional charge of possessing with intent to supply.

“That’s a substantial amount of drugs — you are almost inevitably looking at a prison sentence,” Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said.

Ordering him to surrender his travel documents and check in at Hamilton Police Station three times a week, Mr Tokunbo renewed Azhar’s bail of $25,000 and set a November sentencing date.