A Supreme Court judge yesterday sentenced a Pembroke man to five years in prison after he was stopped at the Bermuda International Airport with $34,000 worth of crack cocaine in his stomach.

"This matter involves a very serious, dangerous and anti-social drug that strikes at the very heart of the Bermudian economy and way of life,'' Assistant Justice Philip Storr told 24-year-old Paul Mario Smith before passing sentence.

Smith was arrested by Airport Customs Officers after he arrived on a flight from New York last March. Nothing was found in his luggage, but X-ray examinations at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital revealed foreign objects in his stomach.

As he was held in custody, Smith passed a total of 17 pellets containing 131.7 grams of crack cocaine.

A Government analyst's report said this amount of narcotics, valuing an estimated $34,000 on the streets, was too much for someone's personal use and must have been intended for distribution.

Smith, a father-of-three, admitted a charge of possession with intent to supply during an arraignment session earlier this month but pleaded not guilty to importation.

At that hearing, Senior Crown counsel Brian Calhoun asked for the latter charge to lie on the file.

Yesterday, Crown counsel Larry Mussenden urged the court to send a strong message to the public that "these sort of offences will not be tolerated by a civilised society''.

He noted that drug addiction was the root cause of the majority of cases that come before the courts and added: "These activities could eventually cause a breakdown in the community as we know it.'' Smith's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher asked for leniency due to the fact that Smith had a young family to support and said his record of previous convictions should not be taken into account because they were not drug related.

"In addition, the gap in convictions from 1994 to 1999 shows a clear effort on the defendant's part to attempt to lead a law abiding life,'' she argued.

"This offence is clearly at the lower end of the scale for this type of matter,'' Ms Christopher added. "The only reason my client is being sentenced in the Supreme Court is because the offence involved crack cocaine.

"I ask the court not to impose too heavy a sentence just because he's here.'' On passing sentence, Mr. Justice Storr said the fact that Smith had a family would not sway his decision.

"You should have taken that into account before you committed the offence,'' he said.

"Considering the seriousness of this case, I cannot be too lenient,'' he said. "I sentence you to five years in prison.''