A 28-year-old Jamaican died when two of the 28 pellets of cocaine he had in his stomach ruptured, an inquest heard yesterday.

The ruptured pellets spilled a massive dose of the drug into his blood stream and he died on December 5, 1993.

Ovel Washington Porter of the parish of St. James, came to Bermuda on board a Delta flight from Atlanta.

He was stopped at Immigration after his entry card gave an address that did not exist.

During an interview with a senior immigration officer, Porter was given an opportunity to call a Bermudian friend who let him use her address.

Porter arrived at Marilyn Furbert's home where he called another man named Calvin Jones who picked him up and took him to his Quarry Lane, Warwick, apartment.

In a later statement to Police, Jones said that prior to Porter's arrival he received a phone call from another man who told him he was sending a mule to Bermuda.

Jones said he spoke to Porter over the phone and he asked him to arrange a hotel room where he could stay for a few days.

After picking him up from Mrs. Furbert's home, Jones said Porter complained of stomach pains and he took him to the Heron Bay Market Place where they bought food and Porter picked up a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

"Ovel ended up at my house that night and he watched television drank a cup of tea and ate some crackers,'' Jones' statement read.

Jones said that around 2.30 a.m. he woke up because Ovel ran to the bathroom where he vomited and spent four to five minutes in there.

He came out and continued to watch television but he ran to the bathroom again 30 minutes later grabbing his throat.

Around 3.30 a.m. he began breathing heavily and started to squirm on the floor and he slouched forward and began taking short breaths.

"I put him in the prone position and I asked him if he wanted to go to hospital. I wrote it on a piece of paper but he said no. I told him I didn't know what to do and I called Police.'' Kevin Burgess, an emergency medical technician at King Edward VII Memorial hospital, said he answered the call around 7.45 a.m. and went to Jones' apartment.

He found Porter face down on the floor. Next to him was a white towel with vomit on it. Burgess said he could find no pulse. His fingers were blue and his pupils were fixed.

Burgess said he tried to revive Porter but his chest did not move when air was forced into his mouth.

Consequently, Burgess called the Police because this was an abnormal occurrence and indicated that something was blocking his airway.

Porter was pronounced dead at 8.55 a.m. An autopsy revealed that he had 198 grams of 60 per cent pure cocaine hidden in 28 rubber pellets in his stomach.

He also had a pair of latex gloves in his luggage which he would have used to retrieve the pellets from his faeces.

The drugs were worth $51,250 if they had been sold on the street.

Det. Sgt. Steven Lightbourne said "swallowing'' was a common method drug dealers used after the cruise ship season ended.

Reading from the report on Porter's death that was submitted for the Commissioner of Police, Det. Sgt. Lightbourne said Porter was not a necessarily innocent casualty of the drug war.

He said it was not known whether Porter had used this method on other occasions to import drugs into Bermuda but he paid the ultimate price for conspiring to import illegal drugs.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.