of possessing $100,000 worth of drugs.

Triathlete Andre Wycliff Place, 27, of North Cliff Lane, Devonshire was accused of possessing $100,000 worth of cannabis with intent to supply.

The drugs, two kilograms of cannabis, were found in a United Parcel Service canvas bag in Place's car during a search of vehicles leaving the air mail facility.

But Place -- who worked as a mail sorter for seven years -- maintained his innocence throughout the three-day trial.

And yesterday the nine-men, three-woman jury came back with its not guilty verdict in less than two hours.

Earlier in the trial, Senior Customs officer Mr. Laurence Brangman told the court he ordered the "stop and search'' procedure because it was believed that unchecked goods were being smuggled out of the air mail facility.

Customs officer Ms Romell Woolridge said when she pulled the bag from Place's car, he begged her not to tell anyone what she had found.

But Place denied this. He said his first reaction was to question where the bag came from.

Mr. Brangman said after the bag was found, he searched the airmail facility and discovered a cardboard wrapping that would have fit the package in which the drugs were found.

He noted the wrapping had an address on it which was later found to be false.

Crown Counsel Mr. Peter DeJulio -- working with Ms Charlene Scott -- accused Place of smuggling the package out during his lunch break, and then throwing the package wrapping in the garbage.

But Place also denied this.

He added that he would not have been able to smuggle anything past the four Customs officers and supervisor that were always in the mail room.

In his final summation, Place's lawyer Mr. Delroy Duncan gave several reasons why the jury could not trust the testimony of Ms Woolridge.

"The most glaring contradiction is about the box (wrapping),'' Mr. Duncan said. "She said it was photographed by P.c. Theodore Providence. But Providence said he never took such a photo.'' Mr. Duncan also noted that in Woolridge's statement to Police and her court testimony, she gave two different versions of the canvas bag's location in the car.

"First she said it was on the floor of the passenger seat,'' Mr. Duncan said.

"Then on the seat, then on the floor again.'' But when Chief Justice the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward directed the jury, he reminded them that people often had different versions of the same story.

"No two people see the same scene in the same way,'' Mr. Justice Ward said.

"Deciding on whether Ms Woolridge is a witness of truth may determine some of the evidence.''