A "businessman in the industry of drug dealing" who conspired to import more than $300,000 worth of cocaine in FedEx packages has been jailed for ten years.

Raynol Todd, who is disabled through a back injury, duped acquaintance Andre Phillip Hill into picking up the parcels as a favour because of his mobility problems.

Mr. Hill went on trial along with Todd earlier this year but was cleared.

Todd, Supreme Court heard yesterday, has convictions for drug dealing dating back 30 years in Bermuda and California.

Jailing him, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves said: "It is obvious that this defendant is a businessman in the industry of drug dealing with a history which demonstrates long experience."

The cocaine at the centre of the case entered Bermuda in three boxes delivered to Federal Express in Serpentine Road, Pembroke, from Trinidad on December 23, 2004. A Customs officer discovered the drugs inside the packages, which were addressed to an Angela Bassett, of Battery Road, St. David's.

The officer alerted the Police who found a total of 1065 grams of the drug. Mr. Hill was arrested by narcotics officers as he picked up the boxes on December 24 and headed toward a waiting taxi.

He protested that he was collecting them as a favour to Todd, who asked him to pick up the Christmas gifts for his family because he has a bad back.

Mr. Hill told detectives where to find Todd, who was waiting in a car in the nearby Belco car park, and they arrested him too. Mr. Hill also told how Todd gave him a piece of paper with the parcel tracking numbers on it, along with $50 to get a taxi to FedEx.

Mr. Hill explained to the jury that he only realised they contained drugs when the Police arrested him – which he thought at first was a joke.

Throughout the trial, Todd denied any involvement in the cocaine plot. He said that while he had been with Mr. Hill earlier that day, he had dropped him off in Hamilton and was merely resting in the Belco parking lot when he happened to be arrested.

During Todd's sentencing yesterday, Detective Constable Windol Thorpe described him as a married man who is a self-employed electrician. He does not work due to his back injury, and receives $600 per month from the Government. During the trial, Todd had told the jury that he also works as a gypsy cab driver.

According to Det. Con. Thorpe, the defendant's first conviction was in 1978 for possession of cannabis with intent to supply. Since then, he has been in trouble in California for possession of cocaine, burglary, theft, and bringing a weapon into prison, for which he received jail sentences.

Defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher asked Mr. Justice Greaves to give Todd a shorter sentence because his back injury – sustained falling from a ladder around a year before the latest offence – means he will find prison particularly tough and painful.

She also pointed out that the matter has been hanging over his head for years due to delays on the part of of the prosecution in bringing the case to court.

Meting out the ten-year sentence – as Todd stood with assistance from prison guards – the judge told him he was motivated purely by greed.

"He seems unable to change his spots or stripes. Society must be protected from people like this defendant and the court ought not to allow itself to be diverted from its duty by any sympathy for any difficulty he may have physically," he said.