An American teenager was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty in Supreme Court yesterday to smuggling $75,000 worth of cocaine to Bermuda.

Mr. Tim Marshall, representing Lyssa Arroyo, 19, appealed for the court's mercy because of the girl's age.

He said Arroyo, of New York, had made an effort to turn her life around, joining the Prison Fellowship and attending church regularly.

"She is someone who is just beginning her adult life,'' he said. "And she has no criminal record whatsoever.'' Mr. Marshall said despite a difficult childhood in a poor area of New York, she had managed to finish high school and go on to college. She was due to start classes at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in spring, he said.

But she got involved in drug smuggling after falling in with a bad crowd, adding she had just lost her job and been conned out of her life savings by a phony accountant.

The Court heard Arroyo was stopped by Customs Officers at the airport last November 21. Her bags were searched and 312 grams of cocaine was found in a hairspray can.

Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly said Arroyo told Police during an interview that she was to check into a local guest house and wait for someone to contact her.

She agreed to go along with the plan under Police observation but nobody came to collect the cocaine.

Under questioning by Mr. Marshall, Det. Con. Bernard Burgess said Arroyo supplied Police with information.

Although she had not given the full name of the Bermudian connection, she had given the name and surname of the Bermudian man in New York who planned the drug shipment, he said.

A tearful Arroyo had nothing to say to the Court before sentencing. Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward told her he had given her the maximum discount he felt he was able to for her cooperation with Police.

But he could not give her any discount for her age because it might encourage drug smuggling operations to pick young people to courier for them.