saw Police officers enter a Court Street boutique.

But when they searched a bag he was carrying they discovered cocaine worth more than $70,000, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

Crown counsel Charlene Scott made these assertions during her opening speech to the jury at the beginning of Larry Lavince Burgess' trial.

Burgess, of Rockville Lane, Pembroke, has pleaded not guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and handling the drug with intent to supply on June 5, 1996.

The court heard that Police went to the 2001 Cuts boutique and saw the defendant about to exit the back door.

At the time he was carrying a bicycle pedal and a plastic bag. There was another man in the bathroom but when Burgess saw the officers he became nervous and started to breathe heavily. He also began to shake.

Police became suspicious and arrested Burgess and they also checked in on the man in the toilet stall where they found pieces of foil.

A pair of soles taken from a grey plastic bag Burgess was carrying was found to contain some white powder that turned out to be cocaine.

Additionally, the soles fit the sneakers of the man in the stall, Ernell Zacchaeus Campbell, 35, of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The cocaine was found to be 79 per cent pure and worth $75,772.

Mark Pettingill and Yogarami Horsemann appear for Burgess while Ms Scott represents the Crown. Chief Justice Austin Ward is presiding.