Prosecutors in the United States want Bermudian Rudolph Clarke to be imprisoned for up to 15 and a half years for his part in a $3.9 million heroin importation plot.However his sentencing was postponed yesterday after his lawyer said co-defendant Kyle John, another Bermudian, lied when he claimed Clarke was the brains behind the pair’s operation.Clarke, 41, of Sandys, and John, 53, of Hamilton Parish, were arrested at John F Kennedy Airport in January 2011 as they tried to make their way from St Maarten to Bermuda.Custom officers discovered heroin with a street value of $3.9 million inside John’s suitcase. Both have pleaded guilty to importing heroin into the US.Clarke was due to be sentenced yesterday, with the US Department of Justice saying he should be jailed between 151 and 188 months: an upper limit of just over 15 and a half years.A sentencing memorandum from Eastern District of New York attorney Loretta Lynch states he deserves a tougher sentence because he failed to admit paying and directing John to carry the drugs into the States.Ms Lynch added that Clarke had participated in a previous narcotic-trafficking trip in December 2010.“He denies that he recruited and paid co-defendant Kyle John to smuggle a bag containing heroin,” she wrote.“The defendant claims that his role in the conspiracy was limited to financing the purchase of narcotics and accompanying John on the January trip to acquire heroin in St Maarten.“But the defendant does not indicate what purpose travelling with John would have served, if it was not to provide John with the heroin in St Maarten and supervise him during the trip.“If Clarke’s role was truly limited to financing the purchase, he could have simply provided John with money and waited in Bermuda.“Rather, the documentary evidence corroborates John’s account that the defendant himself acquired the drugs in St Maarten and travelled with John in a supervisory role.”She continued: “Moreover, the defendant’s assertion that he had not previously been involved in drug trafficking is not credible and casts doubt on the rest of his claim.“Following arrest, John stated that the defendant had paid him to carry drugs from St Maarten back to Bermuda in December 2010.“That account is corroborated by records showing that the men flew out of Bermuda on the same day in December 2010, stayed at the same hotel in St Maarten and travelled to New York on the same flight.”She added that the fact Clarke regularly travelled with tens of thousands of dollars in cash “further supports the inference that he is an experienced drug trafficker”.Responding for Clarke, lawyer Joseph Corozzo argued the sentence should be a maximum 11 years and rejected John’s version of events, saying the defendant had annihilated his own credibility by lying to Government multiple times and falsely implicating others as co-conspirators.Among John’s alleged lies were a claim he merely visited St Maarten to frequent strip clubs and an attempt to implicate a rival named Travis Lindsey out of revenge.“The allegations of Clarke having held a leadership role in the conspiracy stem entirely from John’s unreliable accusations against him,” wrote Mr Corozzo.“The evidence does not show that Clarke was an organiser, leader, manager or supervisor in the offence, or that he trafficked drugs on the December 2010 trip to St Maarten.”Clarke travelled with large amounts of money to purchase jewellery for his fiancee, he said, noting St Maarten is known for its array of jewellery stores.Judge Frederic Block adjourned sentencing to Tuesday, June 5. John is due to be sentenced on Tuesday next week.