A prosecutor alleged a drug mule plotted with his co-accused to conceal nearly $170,000 of cocaine by taping eight packages onto cardboard T-shirt packaging.

Patrick Stamp, 20, of Middle Town Road, Pembroke, has pleaded not guilty to importing 664.87 grams of cocaine with an estimated street value of $168,750 into the Bermuda International Airport on January 7, 2003.

Stamp?s first trial ended without a verdict on April 7 when a jury member was seen talking with Stamp?s family members outside court.

In Supreme Court yesterday Crown counsel Anthony Blackman suggested to Stamp that he did not buy the T-shirts with cocaine inside.

?As far as I knew it was T-shirts,? Stamp replied.

?You never touched them?? Mr. Blackman fired back.

?I put them in the suitcase and never touched them again until I got to Bermuda,? Stamp said.

But Mr. Blackman alleged Stamp knew cocaine was in the black duffel bag he carried into the Customs search area.

?I knew what I had purchased,? Stamp replied.

Stamp also denied knowing the man he is accused of working with to bring in the drugs very well.

Stamp said Garnell Lamont Hollis, 25, of Abbot?s Cliff, Hamilton Parish ? who was sentenced to seven years in prison in April for importing cocaine on January 7 ? had a girlfriend who was a friend of his sister.

He said that before he was approached to take a shopping trip to New Jersey with Hollis he had only seen him around.

Stamp said Hollis booked his ticket but he paid for it.

Mr. Blackman alleged Stamp and Hollis had a deliberate plan to import the drugs but Stamp denied this. When his lawyer Craig Attridge asked if he could explain how cocaine got into the T-shirt packages, he said he could not.

On Tuesday, the Police officer in charge of the investigation, P.c. Jamiko Tucker told the court he had stopped Stamp at the Customs Hall and eventually found the drugs.

P.c. Tucker said, before he opened the bag, he asked Stamp whether the contents belonged to him. ?Yeah, all that stuff was cheap,? Stamp said.

However, P.c. Tucker said Stamp begged him not to open the package of Hanes T-shirts.

?Come on Niko, why you got to open it up?? Stamp said. ?You do not have to open it.?

When two rectangular packages were found in the Hanes T-shirt package stamp said he did not know what it was.

During Stamp?s search, Customs Officer Laticia Smith told P.c. Tucker that Hollis was outside asking for Stamp and P.c. Tucker asked her to bring Hollis inside.

?We were not travelling together,? Stamp said of Hollis. ?We were just on the same plane.?

P.c. Tucker said eight packets of cocaine of similar weight were found in Hollis? luggage.

The eight rectangular packages taped inside four Hanes T-shirt packages found in a black bag Stamp was carrying contained white powder when opened at Police Headquarters on January 8, 2003, he said.

Stamp maintains he knew nothing about the cocaine.

The retrial continues before Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves today.