An Arizona man has been jailed for seven years after the Supreme Court dismissed his defence that he was duped into trying to smuggle $1.2 million of drugs into Bermuda.

Christopher McIver, 61, covered his face in the dock as Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons said: “I reject the submission that Mr McIver was a mere puppet being controlled and dominated by a younger person — he was not, in the view of this court, under duress.”

McIver pleaded guilty last month to importation of cocaine, cannabis, a substance containing THC, and diamorphine, also known as heroin, valued at just over $1.2 million.

However, he denied possessing the drugs with intent to supply and the Crown elected not to proceed with the charge.

McIver arrived in Bermuda on a flight from New York and was taken aside for a secondary inspection by customs officers as he came through L.F. Wade International Airport on November 9, 2022.

The officers found eight plastic-wrapped packages in his luggage that contained 8,535.7g of cannabis, 602.8g of a substance containing THC — the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis — 1,006.9g of cocaine, and 29.8g of heroin.

Although McIver initially claimed to have no knowledge of the packages, Mrs Justice Simmons said at his sentencing yesterday: “He knew the consequence of being found out — hence his comment at the customs inspection of being ‘screwed’.”

Earlier, the court heard that McIver had said to officers when the drugs were discovered in his suitcase: “I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

McIver maintained that he was given the case by someone else and that it had been arranged that a person named “John” would visit him at his hotel in Bermuda.

An analysis of McIver’s phone revealed that a $800 MoneyGram payment had been sent to him a week before he travelled to the island.

A series of WhatsApp messages on the phone spelt out his travel plans, with directions on how to fill out his travel forms, the dates he should arrive on the island and instructions on how to send photographs of what he planned to wear while travelling.

Defence lawyer Susan Mulligan earlier pointed to phone records implying that McIver had been under pressure from someone in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where he was said to have run a failed business, over a promise to invest $50,000 in a boat.

The defence also submitted a letter written by McIver’s brother that described a history of physical and mental-health challenges.

However, Mrs Justice Simmons said in her sentencing ruling that claims of McIver’s psychological and psychiatric issues would not be taken into account.

She added that McIver would have to have known of “the foreseeable harm that would be caused in Bermuda” by the drugs and she agreed with prosecutor Kael London that the high value of the contraband warranted a stiffer sentence.

Mr London had called for 12 years behind bars and Mrs Justice Simmons said she had taken “the prevalence of drug importation and the threat to the wider community into account” in imposing a basic sentence of that length.

However, she allowed a deduction of one year, taking McIver’s clean previous record into account.

Mrs Justice Simmons considered whether McIver was entitled to a deduction in prison time for his guilty plea.

Ms Mulligan had asked for McIver to receive one third off his sentence — but the Crown argued that the defendant should not benefit from an early guilty plea when he had done so only on the eve of going to trial.

The judge accepted that, because of the late disclosure of all the evidence, McIver’s counsel had only been able to properly advise him at that time.

With the one-third discount applied, Mrs Justice Simmons imposed a sentence of seven years and seven months behind bars, with time spent in custody taken into account.

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