An Ottawa man was found not guilty yesterday of smuggling almost $1 million of cannabis into the country last year.

Ngongo-Eric Sampassa, 32, denied that he illegally imported cannabis into the island and possessed cannabis with intent to supply.

During the weeklong trial in the Supreme Court, the jury were told that the question at the heart of the case was whether or not the defendant knew that cannabis was inside his suitcase.

While prosecutors said Mr Sampassa had admitted having cannabis in the suitcase before it was opened, the defendant maintained that he was handed the bag by a friend shortly before the flight and did not verify its contents before he checked it in.

After about three hours of deliberation, the jury delivered a unanimous verdict of not guilty to both charges and Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons released Mr Sampassa.

During the trial, the court heard that Mr Sampassa, a basketball trainer and spouse of a Canadian diplomat, travelled to Bermuda on an Air Canada flight from Toronto on March 11, 2023.

However, shortly after his flight landed, a sniffer dog alerted customs officials to his checked suitcase.

He was questioned by customs officers and after he was told that a K9 unit had indicated towards his bag and a customs officer had smelt the odour of cannabis coming from the suitcase, said that there “may be” marijuana inside.

Asked if he did or did not have cannabis in the suitcase, he responded: “I do.”

The suitcase was found to contain 26 vacuum-sealed bags containing a total of 9,736g of cannabis, which the court heard could fetch almost $1 million if sold on the streets of Bermuda.

However, Mr Sampassa denied any knowledge of the drugs during the trial.

He told the jury that he had intended to fly to Bermuda with a good friend, David Lit, and had met him at Toronto Pearson International Airport on the morning of his flight.

Mr Sampassa said that as a result of a conversation, he agreed to take Mr Lit’s suitcase to Bermuda under the belief that Mr Lit would join him in the island later that day.

He said that he began to “put the pieces together” when questioned by customs officers and, while he accepted that he said the words attributed to him, he claimed he had said “I do” with a questioning tone.

Mr Sampassa said he later learnt that Mr Lit had been arrested in the Turks and Caicos the previous year for drugs offences but he was unaware of that at the time.

Kael London, for the Crown, said the case boiled down to an issue of knowledge and that Mr Sampassa’s comments when questioned by customs clearly showed he knew the contents of the bag.

“I don’t know about you but if I go to another country I’m not telling customs officers there is marijuana in my bag when I don’t know there’s marijuana in my bag,” he said.

He argued that Mr Sampassa had the opportunity to check the contents of the bag before he checked in the luggage under his own name and filled out a customs declaration form making assertions about its contents.

Mr London also suggested that Mr Sampassa had given customs officers his Canadian diplomatic passport shortly after the drugs were discovered in an attempt to escape penalties.

However, Marc Daniels, counsel for Mr Sampassa, said his client had not attempted to use the passport as a “get out of jail free” card.

“He didn’t ask for special treatment,” he said. “He wasn’t trying to get any special treatment.”

He said that there was no fingerprint or DNA evidence linking the defendant to the contents of the suitcase and Mr Sampassa had no reason to smuggle drugs.

Mr Daniels said that the prosecution’s case relied on the interpretation of Mr Sampassa’s words when he spoke with customs officials and if “I do” was followed by a question mark or an exclamation point.

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