Jurors saw a series of messages found on the phone of a woman accused of smuggling drugs, which showed that she was offered $7,000 for a “quick trip to the islands”.

Sandra Marrero-Guzman, 37, has denied conspiring to bring cannabis into Bermuda and possessing cannabis with intent to supply on June 20 last year, after packages of the drug were found in her suitcase at LF Wade International Airport.

The court heard that after Ms Marrero-Guzman was arrested, police seized two pink iPhones from her. She provided passcodes for both devices, which were forensically examined.

As her trial continued yesterday, the jury was shown a series of WhatsApp messages found on one of the phones between Ms Marrero-Guzman and another individual, who referred to himself as “Joe”.

In a message sent on March 30, 2025, Joe suggested he could help the defendant make “some real money”.

Asked how, he responded: “Take a quick trip to the islands. $7,000.”

Joe suggested that they meet to talk about the proposal. However, in messages sent over the following months, Ms Marrero-Guzman expressed some reservations.

In an April 27 message, she told Joe that she did not know if she could trust him, adding that she had recently been “ripped off” and asked why Joe thought he could trust her.

He responded: “I know nothing is going to go wrong. And there’s no way you can run off with my stuff, so I trust it.”

Ms Marrero-Guzman wrote that she was worried about herself, not his “stuff”, but Joe stated that he had “people at the airport”.

She responded: “I’m not trying to get caught and lose my passport or set up or kidnapped. Idk. A friend said this is a terrible idea.”

As the conversations continued, she complied with a request to send him a photograph of her passport and agreed to meet Joe and another person at a Toronto bar in June.

In the subsequent days, Joe sent Ms Marrero-Guzman details of a flight between Toronto and Bermuda, stating that while her return flight would be for June 27, she could book an earlier flight back after she had arrived on the island.

He also indicated that he had transferred her money to purchase the flight, and made a second transfer to cover the cost of the earlier return trip.

E-mail records on her second phone confirmed two money transfers from “Angel Alexander” on June 18 for $630 and $200, along with a booking receipt from a travel website received that same day.

On June 19, the day before her flight, Joe contacted Ms Marrero-Guzman on WhatsApp again, urging her to send him a picture of her in the clothing that she planned to wear for travel.

He wrote: “It must be what you are wearing tomorrow. Nothing else but that. They are waiting on it so if you could send it ASAP.”

While Ms Marrero-Guzman did send a picture later that day, showing herself in a white sweatshirt and sweatpants, Joe sent a message back asking for a full-body picture so they could see her shoes for her “safety”.

She asked if she could just say what kind of shoes she would wear, but he responded in a voice note: “He’s a senior policeman in the airport so he’s not going to know what a Gavina slide is.”

The messages continued on the morning of her flight, with Ms Marrero-Guzman indicating that she was on the plane and Joe asking her to message him once she was out of the airport.

The last message in the conversation was Joe asking Ms Marrero-Guzman if she was out of the airport at 12.24pm.

Last week, the court heard that Ms Marrero-Guzman was selected for a secondary search shortly after she arrived in Bermuda on a flight from Toronto.

An X-ray of her checked luggage, a black hard-shell suitcase, revealed “anomalies” and customs officers immediately saw a series of packages containing plant material when they opened it.

Ms Marrero-Guzman told police that she had been given the suitcase as she arrived at the airport in Toronto.

“I literally got out of the car, took the bag and checked in,” she added.

A total of 12,876.4 grams of cannabis in 29 heat-sealed packages were found in the suitcase.

In a police interview recorded the day after her arrest, Ms Marrero-Guzman said that a friend named Joe had sent her money to book her flight and had asked if she could take something to the island for a friend, which she agreed to.

She said another friend of Joe had given her a ride to the airport in Toronto and handed her a suitcase, which she said she believed contained clothing.

However, she said she was “shocked” to discover the suitcase contained packages of plant material and was adamant that her DNA and fingerprints would not be found on the packages.

While 57 fingerprints were found on the packages, none was a match for the defendant.

The trial continues.

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