Details of a botched Police investigation into a large drug smuggling operation were uncovered in Supreme Court this week, can reveal.

The facts emerged during the recently concluded trial of Kingsley Owen (Critter) Young, who was acquitted on Wednesday of conspiracy to import and possess with intent to supply over $1 million worth of cannabis.

In January last year, Police discovered 19 packets of the drug concealed within a television and dryer unit imported from the US which were addressed to Mr. Young.

Investigating officers replaced 17 of those packets with "dummy packages" and began a surveillance operation.

One officer observed Mr. Young load the cardboard boxes containing the imported goods into the back of his work truck at his then place of employment Bermuda Air Conditioning, before following him to the residence of his friend Dennis Simmons in Smith's Parish.

Mr. Young then unloaded the boxes with Simmons' assistance and was followed by the officer as he returned to Hamilton.

However, Simmons' residence was not kept under surveillance and it was a further four hours before Police appeared on the scene ? by which time all the dummy packages had been removed unobserved.

Under cross examination by defence counsel Larry Scott on Tuesday, the officer who headed the investigation, Detective Constable Trevor Knight, admitted that there had been a "breakdown in communication" during the surveillance operation and that the Police still had no idea where the dummy packages had got to.

"Can you imagine what a disaster it would have been had those packages been the original ones filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cannabis?" Mr. Scott commented during the trial.

Contacted by this week, the Police refused to comment on the revelations.

Media Relations spokesperson Dwayne Caines said that it was the policy of the Service not to comment on any case where the verdict had already been handed down.