A former international cross-country runner accused of smuggling 24lbs of cannabis into Bermuda in a freezer has protested his innocence to a jury.

Jamal Hart told his Supreme Court trial yesterday: ?At no time did I ever know that there were any drugs in the freezer, or did I ever suspect the drugs to be in the freezer.?

Hart, 38, is accused of committing the crime in July 2003. According to the prosecution case, outlined at the start of the trial in mid-January by Crown counsel Graveney Bannister, the freezer was targeted by Customs officials after it arrived at the docks on July 13, 2003.

A few days later, they opened the unit and found some vacuum sealed bags. Police removed the packages, and discovered the cannabis.

The trial heard from Det. Con. Tracey Burgess that she arrested Hart at the Pembroke-based freight firm Best Shipping on July 18, after he had been present when the freezer was picked up by a man in a truck.

Giving evidence this week, Hart told the jury he bumped into an old friend from Bermuda named Michael ?Mikey? Campbell during a trip to New York at the beginning of that month.

He said he told Mr. Campbell how excited he was about his job managing the logistics department at New Venture holding Company in Southside ? the umbrella company for a group that included Elite, Aircare, HWP and Mechanical Solutions.

The job, Hart told the jury, involved overseeing goods that were shipped from New Jersey to Bermuda by a company called Seabridge International.

Hart, of Farm Lane, Hamilton Parish, said his old friend, who was now based in New Jersey, was interested in sending some electrical appliances home to Bermuda for his friends and family.

Hart said Mr. Campbell turned down his offer of using his HWP staff discount to buy goods from the company in Bermuda.

But, he said, he received a call from Mr. Campbell on the Monday he arrived back in Bermuda after his weekend trip to New York. He said his friend asked for details so he could send a freezer purchased in New Jersey to Hart?s company warehouse in Bermuda as part of a HWP consignment that was being shipped there.

Although the freezer was not a HWP company item, Hart told the jury: ?From time to time employees are allowed to ship personal items in HWP containers.?

He said Mr. Campbell said the freezer was being sent to a person named Roger Smith, and supplied an address for him at Beach Road, Somerset. Later, said Mr. Hart, he arranged for a truck to pick up the freezer for Roger Smith from the docks and deliver it.

He visited the shipping agent in Bermuda as the driver was loading the appliance into the vehicle.

He said that after he left the agent?s office and got into his car, he was arrested by two plain-clothed Police officers on suspicion of conspiracy to import a controlled drug. He recalled that his reaction was to tell the officers: ?You must be crazy. You have the wrong guy.?

Hart told the jury he was questioned by the Police, and that Sergeant Stephen Lightbourne ?accused me of lying and indicated that Roger Smith does not exist, the address does not exist and that either I?m covering for somebody or I?m involved?.

The following day, he said, his home in Farm Lane was searched, with a number of items seized. His office was raided the day after, and he was brought to court several months later.

Asked by his lawyer, Charles Richardson, if there was anything else he wished to say to the jury in his defence, Hart replied: ?I would say once again that under no circumstances would I have put myself in a position where I would have known or caused to have imported into this Island any drugs. Nor did I suspect that that freezer had any drugs in it and basically it amounts to an insult of my intelligence, and that?s all I have to say to that matter.?

In answer to cross-examination questions from Crown counsel Graveney Bannister, Hart admitted he did not get formal approval to bring the freezer into Bermuda for his friend in the HWP shipment, and had not sought approval from ?the big boss?. He said he had not seen Mr. Campbell for three to four years before he bumped into him on his trip to New York in July 2003. The case, being heard in front of Puisne Judge Charles Etta Simmons, continues.