The trial of two men accused of conspiring to import cocaine into Bermuda in auto parts started yesterday.

Jahmiko Hayward and Shannon Dwayne Julian Tucker both deny the charge.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale told the jury that auto parts were bought in St. Martin and shipped to Bermuda. One of the parts was found to contain tubes containing cocaine, she added. She said Hayward went to claim the two-part shipment when it arrived in Bermuda, claiming to be Tucker.

Ms Tyndale said between March 2004 and April 2004 there was correspondence between the two defendants, and between Hayward and courier service DHL’s office in Bermuda, to get the shipment from the Caribbean.

Ms Tyndale said when Tucker returned from St. Martin he had documents for that shipment, and a copy of a receipt for auto parts. She added: “We will ask you to conclude that there must have been an agreement between these two defendants and they both knew and intended that this shipment should arrive in Bermuda containing drugs.”

The first witness in the trial, Millicent Lambert-Swainson said she used to work at the Bermuda offices of DHL.

She said on April 4, 2004 a man arrived to pick up the first piece of a two-piece shipment. She said the package was under the name of Shannon Tucker, and that the person who came into the office that day gave that name. When asked to sign his name, he just printed the initials ‘ST’.

He picked up the second package later that day.

Allan Doughty, for Hayward, of Green Acres, Devonshire, asked the witness if she ever saw what was inside the packages. She said she did not. She said that she thought auto parts were inside from looking at the documentation on the package.

Tucker, of Broken Hill Lane, Smith’s, representing himself, said he sent the package and stapled receipts on the side. The witness said she did not see them, and said she only saw the customs documents for duty payments. The trial, before Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves, continues today.