A drug smuggler who told Customs officers that ?silence is the secret to success? was proven wrong on Monday when he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Terrance Vancouver Caines, 42, of Tribe Road, Warwick, was found guilty of importation and possession of over 2,000 grams of cannabis last week.

The drugs were discovered in reel-to-reel containers Caines had brought to Bermuda from the UK after apparently being sent to him via courier from Jamaica. He claimed to be unaware of the containers? contents, saying he had originally believed they contained recordings he had made of nature sounds while in Jamaica before his six-month stay in the UK.

The street value of the drugs was over $100,000.

Caines? silence on the issue of his own guilt and on his participation in an act that was wrong was pointed out by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons as giving him no favour with the court.

?I was very passive in the proceedings as a defendant,? said Caines. ?I could have done more, said more.?

Saying that he maintained his innocence within himself, the defendant asked for the court?s ?unconditional forgiveness, compassion and pity?. Mrs. Justice Simmons told Caines that the court does not operate on the basis of ?unconditional compassion? but on the facts of the case and on the fact-based decision of a jury.

A self-professed ?universal truth revealer and entrepreneur?, Caines told the court: ?I am on a spiritual mission and if that mission has to start in the jail system, that?s fine.?

Having fathered seven children ? the youngest being three years old ? with various women, defence lawyer Larry Scott appealed to the court to consider Caines? familial responsibilities.

The prosecution argued that the court should not take the defendant?s personal situation into account. Crown counsel Shakira Dill recalled his previous conviction for drug offences over ten years ago where he received a lenient sentence for assisting Police in their investigation. She asked for a more severe sentence this time in light of his previous offence and of the value attached to his recent drug-smuggling attempt.

Mr. Scott asked the court to ?be mindful? of the country?s more relaxed attitude towards marijuana today than it was when Caines was first convicted for drug offences. The drug is now considered less dangerous than it was in previous years, Mr. Scott said, and is not as abhorred as crack cocaine or heroin.