admitted he stayed with a suspected drug dealer in New York city.

Jamaka Kamal Gibbons, who now lives on Parson's Road Pembroke, yesterday told a Supreme Court jury his American host did not have a "normal lifestyle''.

"All he does is party,'' Gibbons said. "He didn't work as far as I saw. He was leaving days but I don't know where he went.

"I started to see the people he was hanging around. They sold drugs at a shop and were smoking it in the apartment.'' Gibbons faces three charges of importation, possession with intent to supply, and handling with intent to supply of a controlled substance.

A total of 836 grams of cannabis were found in stereo equipment which Gibbons brought back to Bermuda from New York on March 2 last year.

Although Gibbons admitted to having used marijuana in the past, he denied taking part in any of the drug use and asked to leave when taken to the "shop'' in New York.

Gibbons said he had been given a plane ticket as a birthday present and had originally intended to stay with the family of a close friend while in New York city.

However, after discovering a house full of children, Gibbons said he felt the home "wasn't his type of place'' and decided to look up a friend he had made the previous summer.

Gibbons described his host as a man in his forties who lived on 145th street in Harlem.

After staying in the apartment for three nights, Gibbons returned to Bermuda on March 2 last year and was arrested soon after arriving at the airport.

A Customs and Police search revealed five, tape-wrapped packages of cannabis concealed within a mini component stereo system bought and carried by Gibbons.

The total weight of the packages was 836 grams with an estimated value of $41,800.

Throughout the search and arrest procedures, Gibbons denied any knowledge of the drugs in the stereo equipment.

When asked if he packed his bags himself, Gibbons told officers: "They say that you should pack your own bags ... in case something like this happens.'' "I'm not stupid,'' he added yesterday, "I checked my bag whenever I went away.

"I've heard about these things happening.

"If I had suspected that anything was in this box, I would never have brought it back.'' He told the court that he checked his belongings several times before leaving the United States and was "blown out of the water'' when the packages were discovered.

Crown counsel Charlene Scott argued that Gibbons had full knowledge of what he carried and deliberately paid the duty on the $54 stereo so as not to bring attention to it.

But Gibbons' lawyer, Archibald Warner, condemned the Misuse of Drugs Act as a "draconian piece of legislation'' which was not designed for this "impressionable and naive'' kind of person.

He maintained Gibbons "total lack of knowledge'' of the cannabis, but admitted that it was "virtually impossible to prove his innocence''.

"This case hinges on what you think of the defendant's credibility,'' Mr.

Warner told the eight-man, four-woman jury.

"When you buy a television overseas, are you expected to open the screen to check it? "There is no direct evidence that the defendant knew, suspected or had reason to believe that drugs were in the stereo.'' The trial continues today before Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller.