Drugs trial defendant Andre Hill yesterday denied lying to Federal Express staff as he collected parcels containing cocaine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Previously, FedEx worker Deborah DeSousa has told Supreme Court that Hill attempted to hurry matters along by insisting the packages were for his mother who needed them urgently in her shop.

On the stand for cross-examination yesterday, Hill claimed he had never made such a remark.

He maintains he believed he was collecting Christmas presents on behalf of fellow accused Raynol Todd, on December 24, 2004, and that he only realised they contained drugs when Police arrived and arrested him.

Hill, 53, and Todd, 51, deny conspiring to import $300,000 worth of cocaine into Bermuda, will Hill further pleading not guilty to an allegation of handling the drugs with intent to supply them. The jury has heard Hill collected three boxes from FedEx, which a Customs Officer had already told Police contained suspicious contents.

Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Michael McColm referred to the evidence given earlier by Ms DeSousa. "You said your mother needed the three boxes; she had a customer waiting at the shop, waiting for the three boxes," Mr. McColm told Hill.

The defendant replied: "I remember hearing her (Ms DeSousa) say that, but my mother doesn't work in a shop. I didn't know what was in the three boxes. I did not say that to Ms DeSousa."

Mr. McColm came back: "I suggest you did know what was there. You knew there were drugs in there, didn't you? I suggest that, when Mr. Todd asked you to go and pick up the packages at FedEx, you knew that they contained something illegal."

"No sir, it never entered my mind."

"No suspicions at all?"

"None at all."

"You didn't ask?"

"He was a cripple, incapacitated, who had done me a favour just prior."

The court has previously heard that Todd, who has a bad back and walks with crutches, had given Hill a lift to the hospital shortly before Hill visited FedEx.

Defence lawyers Elizabeth Christopher and Rick Woolridge have now concluded their cases.