A Warwick man who allegedly imported $60,000 worth of cocaine said he had no idea there were plastic bags taped into the back pockets of four pairs of trousers he was carrying.

Dudley Allen Lightbourne, 45, of Cedar Hill, Warwick, pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine and being in possession of the controlled drug with the intent to supply at the Bermuda International Airport on April 9, 2003.

In Supreme Court yesterday, Lightbourne said he never checked to see what was in the back pockets of the trousers.

?It was only jeans. If it was a box or something else, I would be suspicious. America was on high alert, what am I going to take that chance for? What could you possibly put in jeans?? Lightbourne asked.

Lightbourne told the ten-woman, two-man jury he never would have brought the trousers with him to Bermuda if he thought they had drugs inside.

He said a man called Shane left the jeans on a bed in his hotel room the night before he was due to leave Jamaica. He said he went out partying with Shane until early the next morning. When he got back to his hotel room the jeans were still lying on his bed.

?I jammed the jeans in the bag, zipped it, locked it and was off to the airport,? he said.

He testified that Shane asked him to take the trousers to Bermuda for ?Bigs?.

Lightbourne said he was a very close friend of ?Bigs? as they went to nursery school together on the Island.

He said he knew ?Bigs? as a straight-forward Christian widower and he thought he was doing his friend a favour.

?I?m a Bermudian,? Lightbourne said. ?I got a good heart. I brought back seasonings for my wife and gifts and things?.

When defence lawyer Larry Scott asked his client why he went to Jamaica, Lightbourne said it was to have a good time.

?I met a lady friend of mine and she invited me to stay at her house,? he said. ?I was married at the time. I did step out of line. I have been faithful to my wife since then. I was doing foolishness as far as women were concerned. That was the whole reason for going to Jamaica?.

In cross-examination, Crown counsel Graveney Bannister asked Lightbourne if he was surprised when the drugs were discovered in the trousers in his luggage by Senior Customs Officer Kenneth Simmons.

Lightbourne said he was shocked.

?If there was something there I did not put it there,? he said. ?I was talkative. I used to play cricket for Warwick?.

After Mr. Simmons locked the exit door to the Customs Hall, Lightbourne thought they were having a drill.

?I thought it was a rehearsal or routine thing they do down at the airport to try and shake someone up,? he said.

Mr. Bannister asked Lightbourne why he told Det. Sgt. Windol Thorpe he bought the jeans from a street-vendor in Montego Bay.

Lightbourne said he had gotten confused.

Earlier in yesterday?s hearing Mr. Scott grilled Det. Sgt. Thorpe on why Police did not pick up on Lightbourne?s suggestion that they should launch a sting operation and catch ?Bigs?.

Det. Sgt. Thorpe said such decisions were made by people higher up in narcotics.

Mr. Scott suggested Lightbourne had not changed his story about how he had got the trousers but had merely been talking about different trousers when interviewed by Police.

Det. Sgt. Thorpe disagreed with Mr. Scott?s suggestion that the method used to import the drugs was one of the ?dumbest ways? possible.

The trial is due to resume before Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves this morning.