Three St. David's men went on trial yesterday accused of possessing $500,000 worth of cannabis with intent to supply.

A Supreme Court jury heard the drugs were imported inside a mechanical drill bracket which was intercepted at the Bermuda International Airport on May 22, 1998.

Police and Customs officers removed some of the drugs and placed dummy samples into the bracket, which was repacked and returned for collection.

Brothers David Stephen Ottley, 44, and Noel McDonald Ottley, 43, and Otis Burt Ingham, 33, deny possession of the drug with intent to supply and an alternative charge of handling a controlled drug with intent to supply.

The court heard a sniffer dog at the Airport was alerted to the package, which was sent from Smith Brothers in West Palm Beach, West Florida, to Boyle's Excavating on Quarry Hill Road, Warwick.

Crown prosecutor Sandra Bacchus said the package was opened and found to contain 23 packages of cannabis weighing 10,181 grammes, and worth up to $500,000, depending on how it was sold.

On May 27, Ingham, of St. Luke's Lane, took the bracket but was placed under surveillance and was seen with the Ottley brothers in a white pick-up van.

The three were later seen coming out of a wood at the Ottleys' house on Lighthouse Hill and tried to run away but were arrested, she said.

She said the fingerprints of Ingham and David Ottley were found on the bracket.

The wooden pallet containing the bracket was taken from the Airport freight shed to a garage at Police headquarters in Prospect to be examined on May 22.

It was photographed, some dummy packages were inserted and it was welded back together before being sent back to the airport to be collected later.

Scenes of Crime officer Jewel Alex Hayward said he took photographs of the bracket being dismantled at Prospect to reveal the cannabis.

The officer was adamant that the three defendants were present when the bracket was opened and the photographs taken, five days before they were arrested.

Under cross examination from Elizabeth Christopher and Renee Foggo for the Ottleys, P.c. Hayward insisted the three defendants were at the Police garage when the photographs were taken.

He agreed with Ms Foggo that, in his statement on August 25 1998, he made no mention of the three defendants being present.

When asked by Ms Bacchus if he wanted to change his evidence in light of this, P.c. Hayward maintained that the Ottley brothers were present, but he could not recall the date.

Narcotics officer Det. Con. Alex Severin said cannabis was sold in half gramme bags for $25. If the haul was split into half gramme bags there would be 20,362 deals with a street value of $509,050.

If they were broken into ounce deals, there would be 363.5 ounces which would sell for $181,750. If they were sold by the pound, there would be 22.5 packages which would net a total of $146,250.

Customs officer Heather Brown, who is based at the Airport, said a wooden crate on the Delta flight from Atlanta on May 22 attracted the attention of a sniffer dog.

It was taken to the strong room to be X-rayed and narcotics officers were called in.

She said the package was taken to Prospect and each end of the bracket was sawn off by a Police officer. Twenty-three packages were examined by Government analyst Kevin Leask and dummy samples were put back into some of the packages.

Ms Brown agreed with the defence that the defendants were not present during the process.

Security engineer Gabriel Johnston, of North Shore Road, Pembroke, said he had a verbal agreement with Ingham whereby he lent him his white Isuzu van when he needed it.

Mr. Johnston ran a landscape gardening business, which he was phasing out, and was trying to sell it to Ingham, he said was trying to open such a company.

He told the Court that, in May, 1998, he tried to call Ingham because he wanted his van. Ingham was not in so he called the Police who told him the van was impounded.

Detective Sergeant Hayden Small of the Narcotics Department said he was travelling with other officers to the Airport in a Police van on May 27 because of information received which said the pallet with the drugs was being moved.

While travelling through Flatts Village they spotted the three defendants in the van with the pallet travelling in the opposite direction.

Following further information, they followed them to Spanish Point and then the Ottleys' house on Lighthouse Hill where the three were arrested.

The trial before Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller continues today. Ingham is represented by Larry Scott.