A former policeman has been cleared of charges that he conspired to import and supply firearms and ammunition, but was found guilty of conspiring to import and supply drugs.

Jonathan McAlpine-Talbot was convicted by a jury of nine women and three men after about ten hours of deliberations.

He was found not guilty on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Co-accused Ezekiel Swan was found guilty of conspiring to import firearms and ammunition, but cleared of allegations that he conspired to supply them.

Swan was also found guilty of conspiring to import and supply drugs.

The final determinations — a combination of unanimous and majority verdicts — were delivered shortly before 10pm.

McAlpine-Talbot and Swan had denied allegations that they conspired with others to import and supply firearms and ammunition between an unknown date and November 14, 2023.

Both men also pleaded not guilty to allegations of conspiring to import and supply controlled drugs between an unknown date and December 2, 2023.

McAlpine-Talbot, a former police sergeant, further denied a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice by improperly sharing information into the investigation of the murder of Wilfred Outerbridge Jr, for which he was found not guilty.

He earlier admitted using a police computer on November 21 and December 2, 2023 to access materials without authorisation.

In a trial that lasted more than two weeks, the court heard that three other men — Ryan Resendes, Jonathan Mello and Jose Puga — had admitted various charges in connection with the importation plot.

The bulk of the charges revolved around the seizure of two firearms, more than $270,000 in drugs and 131 rounds of ammunition discovered at a St George’s garage on December 2, 2023.

The court heard evidence that firearms, ammunition and drugs were brought to Bermuda by boat late in the evening of November 13, 2023, or in the early morning of November 14, 2023.

During the trial, the jury saw CCTV footage showing Mello and Resendes travelling between St George’s, St David’s and a public dock, while GPS records from McAlpine-Talbot’s police radio showed him travelling to the same public dock at the same time in the early hours of November 14, 2023.

Less than an hour later, recordings from a St George’s garage, owned by Resendes’s family, showed Mello bringing a black bucket into the garage and removing alleged firearms in heat-sealed packages from the bucket.

The court heard that police executed a search at the garage on December 2, 2023, and discovered a black bucket containing several items in heat-sealed packages, including firearms, near the tree line of the property.

During the trial, the Crown noted a series of communications between McAlpine-Talbot and both Resendes and Mello on the night of the importation and afterwards.

In one message, sent on November 13, McAlpine-Talbot told Mello that the “undercover team is off”.

In other messages, sent after the importation, prosecutors said McAlpine-Talbot had warned Mello that police were looking to arrest him and cautioned Resendes to make sure his “spot” was clean.

Meanwhile, prosecutors alleged that Swan was involved in the purchase of the contraband, noting that in October 2023 he had flown to California and met with Puga, a US resident whom the court heard operated a legal cannabis business.

The jury was shown a series of videos on Swan’s phone, produced during his three-day stay in California, which showed cannabis products and a firearm that matched the description of items found in the December search.

Jerome Lynch KC, for McAlpine-Talbot, said that his client was a well-intentioned police officer who made a series of poor decisions attempting to bring down the “big boys”.

While he said McAlpine-Talbot should have made other officers aware of the importation plot, comments made by an information co-ordinator made him believe he could not trust others with the information he was gathering.

Mr Lynch argued that in the weeks after the importation, the communications showed the defendant was still trying to build a case against the conspirators by himself and “make good”.

Victoria Greening, for Swan, argued that her client travelled to California on holiday to enjoy legal cannabis and the evidence did not prove that he was aware of the plot or that he agreed to play an active role in it.

Ms Greening added: “The videos of Mr Swan, if it even was Mr Swan, looking at the cannabis wrappers doesn’t mean anything more than that.”

Both lawyers argued that there was no proof that their clients had been enriched by the plot and urged the jury to find their clients not guilty of all of the offences against them.

Jurors raised several questions during their deliberations, including seeking clarification between the conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply charges, and if intent was required to pervert the course of justice or if simply leaking the information was enough.

The jurors also requested to review CCTV footage that showed McAlpine-Talbot’s police car driving out of St David’s and along Blue Hole Hill, with the white truck used by Mello and Resendes travelling seconds behind it.

McAlpine-Talbot and Swan were remanded in custody with dates set for each to return to court in December.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe exempted the jurors from jury duty for the next five years.

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