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Man guilty of swallowing cannabis evidence

A man who ingested more than 100 grams of cannabis resin was caught after he refused to be X-rayed at the airport.

Kenneth Butterfield, 45, admitted importing the controlled drug into Bermuda when he appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday. He will be sentenced next month.

Butterfield, from St George’s, was also accused of having the drug with intent to supply but that charge was dropped.

The court heard that Butterfield returned to the island from Britain on February 16 last year and was arrested after refusing to be X-rayed by customs officers at LF Wade International Airport.

Butterfield was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital to see if a drug was in his system. While there, he passed 44 “cylindrical pellets” and secreted an additional eight the next evening.

Police seized the samples, which Butterfield said was “hash”. They were found to be 110.76 grams of cannabis resin.

Cindy Clarke, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the drugs would sell for more than $11,000 on Bermuda’s streets if sold by the ounce, more than $22,000 by the gram and more than $12,000 by the quarter-ounce.

Magistrate Maria Sofianos ordered that reports be written for Butterfield, who has previous convictions for similar offences, and adjourned the case to March 28 for sentencing.

Butterfield was ordered to surrender all travel documents and was released on $25,000 bail with one surety until that time.

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