A 23-year-old Bahamian national was yesterday sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to importing more than $50,000 worth of cannabis resin.

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke recommended the five-year prison sentence for Brent Cunningham, who she said was unemployed and lives in the Bahamas.

On February 15, narcotics officers showed up at the Brightside guest apartments in Flatts with a search warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Officers went to room 34, and inside they found Cunningham, who had just arrived in Bermuda, and another man in the room.

Officers also noticed a plastic bag next to a chair, which had faeces in it along with used toilet paper.

After Police noticed a bottle of laxative next to the bag, Cunningham admitted to them he had smuggled cannabis resin pellets into Bermuda and had already excreted some.

He told them a Jamaican man he met in Cuba had asked him to smuggle them into Bermuda.

Police arrested him and took him to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for an X-ray which showed he had foreign objects in his abdomen.

He later excreted 38 pellets which were later analysed and found to be 521 grams of cannabis resin, worth $52,100 if sold in decks of $25 on the streets of Bermuda.

In Supreme Court, defence lawyer Larry Scott asked Puisne Justice Carlisle Greaves not to hand down the maximum five-year sentence, citing that Cunningham had been very cooperative with Police.

Instead, Mr. Scott recommended a sentence of less than four years.

Before Mr. Justice Greaves handed down the five-year term, ruling that "a five-year term is not unreasonable", Cunningham addressed the court and said: "When I decided to import drugs into Bermuda, I was in dire financial (condition)... I'm truly sorry."