Two drug traffickers were given lengthy jail terms yesterday in separate cases before the Supreme Court.

Single mother of six Applyn Joy Hamilton, from Jamaica, was sentenced to six years for importing cocaine with a total street value of $83,000, and an additional two years for importing cannabis resin, worth more than $8,000.

Her sentences are to run concurrently.

Prosecutor Shade Subair told the court that Hamilton had been stopped by Police and Customs officers as she entered the Island at Bermuda International Airport on July 25 this year.

She told the officers she was staying at a holiday apartment and was to be collected at the airport by a man named Albert Phillips.

However, when the officers telephoned the alleged Mr. Phillips, he said he did not know the woman and hung up.

Ms Subair said Hamilton told the officers she had enough money to stay two nights and asked to be let into the Island, which they agreed.

However, moments later, Customs asked her to remove her shoes, and found three packages of drugs stuffed inside them, two of cocaine and one of cannabis.

At first, Hamilton told the officers she did not know there was anything in the shoes she was wearing, but then stated that her nephew had told her that it was "gum" (cannabis).

The 41-year-old, who has six children aged between two and 22, later pleaded guilty to two charges of importation.

Yesterday, her lawyer Larry Scott asked Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons to be lenient.

He said foreign nationals should receive shorter sentences than locals to place less of a burden on the public purse in Bermuda.

And he said consideration should be given to the fact that Hamilton's drugs were seized at the airport and did not make it into anybody else's hands, and did not lead to cash exchanges.

But Justice Simmons said she could not differentiate between Bermudians and foreigners when passing sentence.

And she said most of the drugs seized in Bermuda where charges of importation followed were seized at the point of entry and were never put out to circulation, so that factor could not be considered either.

Hamilton apologised to the court and begged for compassion.

She said: "I have six children, I'm a single parent, four of them I have to work for and maintain. It's very hard on me. I was trying to come here to work to build a little home for them. I have found out that was the wrong thing to have done. It's definitely not the way for anybody. It's so wrong. I'm begging you for mercy."

Hamilton said since she had been arrested and held on remand, her children had suffered.

She added: "The last time I spoke to them, they said they were hungry and starving. They have no one to take care of them."

But Justice Simmons, in sentencing, said: "You lacked compassion for your own children when you decided to commit these offences in Bermuda, so you can not now expect compassion from the court."