Counsel for a man accused of involvement in a $300,000 drug-smuggling plot told a jury that the Crown’s case had fallen short of proving guilt.

Marc Daniels, representing Kanhai Armstrong, called on the jury yesterday to find his client not guilty as the Supreme Court trial approached its conclusion.

“This is a case where the Crown is saying you have a 100-piece puzzle and what they want you to believe is you are going to be able to put these pieces together and get a picture of Horseshoe Bay,” he said.

“The problem is when you look at the evidence, it’s the equivalent of having 35 pieces of a 100-piece set.

“You can see pink sand, you can see the blue water, but do you have enough pieces to say it’s Horseshoe Bay or could it be John Smith’s Bay?”

Mr Armstrong and Melvin Simmons have both denied charges that they conspired with others to import cannabis into Bermuda and sell the controlled drug on an unknown date before August 5, 2020.

The court previously heard that 11 heat-sealed packages of plantlike material were found by customs officers on that date, hidden inside an ottoman shipped to the island under the name “Calvin Wade”.

The packages were found to contain a total of 6,167.6g of cannabis, which could fetch as much as $308,000 if sold on the streets of Bermuda.

After the drugs were removed, the ottoman was put back into its box and returned to customs.

The package was collected from Best Shipping by Mr Simmons on August 10 and the ottoman was later found torn open at the Tynes Bay tipping area.

On Tuesday, prosecutor Daniel Kitson-Walters said the actions of both men had demonstrated their knowledge of the drug plot.

In the case of Mr Armstrong, he highlighted that police had recovered messages on the defendant’s phone that contained details about the package.

He also noted that, after Mr Simmons had collected the package, Mr Armstrong was seen on CCTV getting into the van and shutting the door behind him.

Mr Simmons testified that while he did not see what Mr Armstrong was doing in the back of the van, he heard the sound of ripping cardboard.

He went on to say that Mr Armstrong told him that the package was not what he had ordered and told him to get rid of it.

Concluding his closing remarks, Mr Daniels said there was no evidence about what took place inside the vehicle and asked the jury if it was possible his client wanted to know what was in the box that had arrived, not necessarily because he wanted to retrieve hidden drugs.

He also said it would not be unusual for his client to ask Mr Simmons to get rid of the package if it did not contain what he expected.

Mr Daniels noted that while WhatsApp messages recovered from Mr Armstrong’s phone did not mention an ottoman, it did reference a “queen bed set frame”.

“We don’t live in America where you can have UPS pick it up that afternoon and take it back,” he said.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations in the case today.

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