A 24-year-old Smith's Parish man was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one charge of supplying ecstasy and two charges of possession of the drug in the Escape Nightclub.

Raymond Swan of Town Hill was found with the drug during a Police raid of the Par-la-Ville Road night spot on August 15.

Officers with a search warrant approached Swan who was sitting on a chair and searched him. Part of a tablet wrapped in papers was found in his wallet and a tablet was found beside the chair where he had been sitting.

Swan was arrested and a further search by Police uncovered a Tylenol bottle containing 40 multi-coloured tablets stuffed under the chair.

He told Police he had sold a couple of ecstasy tablets before the raid and admitted carrying the forty tablets in the Tylenol bottle and owning the other two tablets found.

Swan had $617 in his possession of which he said $517 were proceeds from the sale of ecstasy.

He told Police the drug made users feel happy and that "your enemy became your best friend'' and admitted he knew ecstasy was illegal in Bermuda.

Government analysis showed the tablets were ecstasy tablets which contained between 16 percent and 35 percent of the active drug MDMA.

The 40 ecstasy tablets came in several colours which indicated the different strengths of each tablet and were estimated to have a street value of $1,700.

Lawyer Marc Telemaque, representing Swan, asked Magistrate Edward King to order a social inquiry report but was cut short by a stern warning from Mr.

King.

He said: "The answer for supplying drugs is prison, because people in this community know about people dealing in drugs, and have zero tolerance.

"You are dealing out death and hardship, so I am not going to order any inquiry. The answer is, if you supply drugs it is an immediate custodial sentence.'' Mr. King mentioned Operation Cleansweep which "swept for a while and people went to prison for everything, from marijuana to heroin''.

He noted the minimum prison term during Operation Cleansweep was 18 months.

Mr. Telemaque urged Mr. King to consider several mitigating factors before passing sentence.

He urged him to be mindful of the defendant's young age, his guilty plea and his ready admission to the charges filed against him.

Swan had also been very cooperative with Police and had identified the supplier of the drugs and given them his address, he noted.

Ecstasy conviction remorse and the value of the ecstasy he was in possession of was relatively low, said Mr. Telemaque.

He added that the courts -- and the public -- did not have a high degree of experience in ecstasy.

Mr. Telemaque noted that ecstasy was a "designer drug'' which was not a "hard drug'' but a "drug of choice''.

He then argued that the court would be safe and be doing justice by implementing a custodial sentence but asked that it be suspended.

Mr. King said the "scourge of drugs has created zero tolerance, and the court has a duty to punish, to deter and to protect the public.

"Cases such as this, one of supply, requires an immediate custodial sentence and this view is expressed by the Court of Appeal.

"Therefore a suspended sentence is a no-no.'' Mr. King then sentenced Swan to two years in jail for each of the three charges which will run concurrently.

He told Swan: "You knew what you were doing was wrong...the very fact that you hid the drugs when the Police came in shows that you knew you were doing wrong.'' The sentence comes three months after the club was approved for operating with a liquor licence.

It has also been less than a year since parents of youths attending the former "juice bar'' expressed concerns of illegal drugs being available and being used on the premises.