A man accused of importing cannabis hidden in a motorcycle muffler has gone on trial at Supreme Court.

Kevin Shiell, 35, of Sommersall Road, Smiths denies the charge, plus an additional charge of possessing the drug with intent to supply on January 4 last year.

Opening the trial yesterday, Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the jury that Shiell travelled to Massachusetts from December, 2006 until January, 2007.

He alleged that while he was there, he caused a shipment of bike equipment to be sent to Bermuda.

Routine checks on the shipment at the airport by a narcotics team alerted them to the muffler, which was in a shipment of packages addressed to Everest Darrell.

They discovered cannabis inside, and proceeded to monitor the package through the rest of the delivery process. When the accused and Mr. Darrell arrived to collect it, they were arrested, said Mr. Mahoney.

In his evidence, Det. Sgt. Ian Coyles told how his Belgian Shepherd sniffer dog Rokki alerted to the package in the courier department of the airport on January 4, 2007.

Having become suspicious about the unusually heavily muffler he found inside, he took it to the Police headquarters and handed it over for further examination.

Sgt Coyles told the jury the muffler was inside a box addressed to Mr. Darrell which also contained two chrome motorcycle crash bars. The sender was listed as Gary Pescatore Cycles in Beverly, Massachusetts.

The case continues.