A Jamaican father urged people to "say no to drugs and yes to education" when he was jailed for six years yesterday for importing $150,000 worth of cocaine into the Island.

Derrick McLaughlin, who will be 30 tomorrow, asked the court for mercy after pleading guilty to bringing 588.8 grams of the drug into Bermuda in his stomach last October.

Just before sentence was passed by Assistance Justice Archibald Warner, McLaughlin said: "Don't let anybody bribe you into doing drugs. Say no to drugs and yes to education. I don't have any education."

Prosecutor Anthony Blackman told Supreme Court that McLaughlin, who has a two-year-old son, was searched at Bermuda International Airport after Customs officers noticed he looked nervous after arriving on a flight from New York's JFK Airport.

He was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for an abdominal X-Ray, where foreign objects were spotted in his stomach.

During the course of three days, McLaughlin excreted a total of 81 pellets containing cocaine - which had a total street value of $149,500.

The $200-a-month taxi driver then confessed to Police that he had been offered between $3,000 and $4,000 to bring the drugs into Bermuda.

The court heard that he offered the name of the contact in Jamaica, and told officers he was supposed to stay at a Middletown apartment while in Bermuda.

However, by the time he came out of hospital and was interviewed by Police, his information arrived too late and led to no further arrests.

Mr. Blackman asked the court to consider a sentence of seven years.

He said: "The sentence should reflect the seriousness of the offence, and it should also contain a deterrent element, so that other persons will not be enticed to willingly bring these dangerous drugs to the Islands of Bermuda.

"I think we all know the hardship that do accompany these drugs."

Defending McLaughlin, lawyer Larry Scott asked Assistant Justice Warner to take into consideration that his client had given an early confession, and he argued that he should be given leniency because he had offered information on the drug supplier.

Mr. Scott also claimed McLaughlin had only offered to bring the drugs in because he owed money on his rent, and said he had been threatened unless he paid it.

However, Assistant Justice Warner said his Police statement never mentioned anything about a threat.

And the judge said he could give little or no weight to the information McLaughlin had offered because it led nowhere and came too late to help detectives.

Mr. Scott said: "He has not wasted the court's time and gone to trial. He has been fully co-operative with the Police."

And Mr. Scott said there was a slight discrepancy in one of the Police statements in the weight of drugs seized, amounting to a difference of $10,000 in value.

However, Assistant Justice Warner said that, again, would not be sufficient reason to reduce the sentence of the defendant.

Before passing sentence, the judge asked McLaughlin if he had anything to say.

The defendant said he had been told by Police to make up the story about owing money on his rent because his real reason for importing the drugs was not believable, and that the judge would not be an "idiot" who would be taken in.

He said the real version was that he had been in Jamaica and was throwing stones at a mango tree when one hit a passing car and smashed the windscreen.

He said he had been unable to pay for the damage, and was threatened by the owner that, in order to pay for the damage, he must take drugs to Bermuda, instead. If he did not go, he would be killed.

McLaughlin said: "He bought the ticket and sent me off. I did not want to lose my life that way."

Assistant Justice Warner questioned why he had never told that version to Police, and said, far from not being educated, he had spoken clearly and coherently.

The judge said he had taken everything into consideration, including that the defendant was now contrite about the matter, but said a lengthy jail-term was necessary.

He said: "In all the circumstances, the appropriate sentence for this case is six years imprisonment."