A Christmas Eve delivery contained cocaine worth more than $300,000 – had the drugs made it to Bermuda's streets – Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Andre Phillip Hill, 53, and Raynol Shane Todd, 51, have both pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine between an unknown date and December 23, 2004.

Hill also denies a charge of handling the drugs with intent to supply.

Their trial had faced a delay earlier this month after Hill collapsed in the dock and had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance.

Both Hill, who is represented by Rick Woolridge, and Todd, who is represented by Elizabeth Christopher, were therefore seated not in the dock but in the places normally reserved for the media.

After choosing a three-woman and nine-man jury, Crown Prosecutor Michael McColm said the case was dealing with a substantial amount of drugs.

He said: "1,065.6 grams of cocaine. That's a substantial amount of the drug. Such a drug could be sold in half gram wraps and, if so, on the street level it involves or could get more than $300,000."

The drugs had been found in three boxes that arrived in Bermuda from Newark, New Jersey, on December 23, 2004, the court heard.

According to Mr. McColm, on Christmas Eve in 2004, Hill went to the FedEx offices on Serpentine Road, Pembroke, at 1.30 p.m.

He had a yellow Post-It note with three numbers that corresponded to three boxes for an Angela Bassett, but FedEx employee Kelly Tweed would not release them unless Ms Bassett gave him permission.

Giving evidence yesterday, Ms Tweed said it was standard practice to not release packages without the permission of the person for whom the boxes were addressed.

She also stated that Hill appeared agitated — pacing back and forth. Defence lawyer Mr. Woolridge challenged that she had never made that observation in her initial statement to Police four years ago and she agreed.

When Hill returned at 4.15 p.m. with a letter, Deborah DeSousa, the senior customer service agent accepted the letter and went to retrieve the boxes from the back.

Only one of the boxes had US Customs tape on it, so Ms DeSousa gave the other two to her manager, Christopher Heslop, who had them opened by their Customs Officer Carla Burgess.

Inside, according to Mr. McColm, Ms Burgess found black plastic bags and the Police Narcotic officers were notified.

Police arrived at FedEx's office and Hill was allowed to pick-up the packages and walk out of the building.

He started walking in the direction of a white taxi in the parking lot until Police approached him, identified themselves and arrested him.

Allegedly Hill replied: "The boxes are for Philip Todd. He's in the Belco car park."

Todd was found by Police parked in a white Suzuki Ignis and after identifying himself, Todd was arrested for conspiracy to import a controlled drug.

Yesterday, the jury also heard from Detective Constable Jewel Hayward who is attached to the Narcotics Division and who photographed the three boxes containing the cocaine powder.

Only the negatives were available because, as Mr. Hayward explained, a mould problem at the Police station in October 2006 had destroyed the evidence.

M. Christopher raised questions about the lack of evidence, asking what had happened to the boxes, but Mr. Hayward said he was unaware of what had happened to the boxes.

The trial will continue today.