The jury in the trial of two men charged with smuggling cannabis into the island yesterday viewed police bodycam footage of one of the suspects being followed by an officer.

Melvin Simmons and Kanhai Armstrong have both denied charges that they conspired with others to import cannabis into Bermuda and sell the controlled drug.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between an unknown date and August 5, 2020.

The court previously heard that on August 5, 2020, 11 packages containing more than 6,000g of cannabis were discovered hidden in an ottoman shipped to the island.

The drugs were removed from the item, with the item then put back into a box and sent back to customs.

The court heard that Mr Simmons collected the package on the morning of August 10 and the ottoman was later found cut open at Tynes Bay.

As the trial continued yesterday, Police Sergeant Andrew Beaupierre said that on the morning of August 10, 2020, he began tailing a van, owned by storage company Vault, driven by Mr Simmons.

Mr Beaupierre, who was in an unmarked police car, testified that he was acting “based on information I had”.

He followed the van along Reid Street, up Queen Street and on to Church Street.

The van turned into an alley just past the Washington Mall and into an underground car park, where it stopped.

Mr Beaupierre said: “I followed the vehicle, activated my bodycam and approached the driver, who identified himself as Mr Simmons.”

The footage showed Mr Simmons being questioned by the officer about his movements that morning, as well as about the contents of the van.

Mr Simmons could be heard explaining that he had come from the Vault offices on Mill Creek Road and was delivering storage boxes to a customer.

Mr Simmons could also be seen pointing to another, unidentifiable object in the van, saying: “This has been there. It belongs to somebody.”

Mr Beaupierre said that he then arrested Mr Simmons and handed him to other officers. He then seized the van and drove it to Police Headquarters at Prospect.

Under cross-examination by Elizabeth Christopher, counsel for Mr Simmons, Mr Beaupierre agreed that Mr Simmons had been “compliant” during the interaction.

CCTV footage was also shown of a Vault van arriving at the Tynes Bay waste treatment facility on the same day that Mr Simmons was arrested.

Prosecution witness Michael Stamper, a senior clerk at Tynes Bay, said he was monitoring the plant’s weigh bridge when the Vault van arrived at about 9.30am.

He explained that vehicles dumping waste at the facility must drive on to the bridge and stop in order to calculate how much waste they are carrying.

CCTV footage showed the Vault van being driven on a road adjacent to the bridge and stopping alongside it. The driver got out of the vehicle and disappeared off camera.

He returned moments later, got into the van, and drove away without stopping on the weight bridge.

Footage from inside of the tipping area at Tynes Bay showed the van pull in and someone throw several items from the back of the van before driving away.

Under cross-examination by Ms Christopher, Mr Stamper said he had been shown the CCTV footage on Monday.

Asked why he had said the van drove past without stopping when the video showed that it had stopped, he said he was relying on his memory from the day of the event.

Ms Christopher suggested that the van’s driver had approached him and asked for permission not to weigh the van.

Mr Stamper said he could not recall such an interaction but that he would not have given permission for someone to not weigh their vehicle.

“It’s above my pay grade,” he explained.

He told the court that he had seen Mr Simmons at Tynes Bay previously, stating that Vault staff would drop off items three or four times a month.

The trial continues.

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