importing more than $220,000 worth of cannabis.

Forty-year-old Gregory Ryan Ashby, of Berkeley Road, is accused of importing, possessing and handling almost ten pounds of cannabis with the intent to supply.

Police and Customs officials discovered the drugs hidden inside a water heater shipped aboard the Oleander on February 19 last year.

Two days later Ashby and a co-worker from Bermuda Forwarders, Sinclair MacDonald Pitt, picked up the water heater from the Number Eight Shed on Front Street, Hamilton.

The two men took the 30-gallon heater to Ashby's grandmother's home and Ashby placed the heater in her basement.

Narcotics officers arrested both men the same day but later released Mr. Pitt.

Earlier in the trial, Ashby rejected or was unable to recall many of the details of Police accounts.

But yesterday Crown counsel Peter Eccles -- during closing arguments -- challenged the inconsistencies between Ashby's account and those of other witnesses.

"Who do you believe?'' Mr. Eccles asked the six-man, six-woman jury. "Do you believe Mr. Ashby? Should you? Can you? The answer is no.

"His story only makes sense if you ignore most of the witnesses. The differences in accounts were never put to the other witnesses,'' he added.

Mr. Eccles spoke of the clerical mix-up which led to a portion of the drugs evidence being misplaced for some nine months.

But he said the careful procedures carried out by Police and Customs officials when they first discovered the hidden packages on February 19 were enough to prove the existence of the cannabis.

"Yes, mistakes were made,'' he admitted. "It was unfortunate. But that mix-up of labels does not retroactively erase what the analyst did.

"Was it lost for nine months? No. The labels were mixed-up,'' he said.

Mr. Eccles also said the portrayal of Ashby's co-worker as the "mastermind'' behind the failed drug pick-up was untrue.

He said Mr. Pitt's testimony was corroborated by those of other witnesses and he described his answers as "clear, straightforward and not evasive''.

"Mr. Pitt is a driver's helper who had the bad luck to be stuck in a truck on the last day of the week with Mr. Ashby,'' Mr. Eccles said.

"(Mr. Ashby) is a drug runner, a drug dealer, who got caught.'' But defence lawyer Archibald Warner described the Crown's case as "shallow'' and "based on suspicion''.

And he maintained that the mishandling of the drug after it entered Police custody and the fact that no tested samples were put before the court should lead the jury to question the validity of the evidence.

Mr. Warner acknowledged that on February 21, Ashby was in the cargo area of the Number Eight shed looking around but said there was nothing unusual in this.

He also said it was uncertain which of the two men was responsible for the clearance documents on the day the men picked up the heater.

"No-one is certain because there was a great amount of confusion that day,'' he said.

"Only Mr. Pitt and Mr. Ashby know.'' Mr. Warner also questioned how the heater and an accompanying toilet bowl were able to be moved from their original cargo bay while under Police observation.

"Something is missing. Someone else down there had to know how the crates got to the number one bay,'' he said.

And Mr. Warner admitted there were inconsistencies in his client's account, but told the jury: "You may feel that Ashby lied. But just because Ashby lied, does that mean that he knew drugs were in the two pieces? "He and Ashby worked on the same truck. Pitt says the heater belongs to Ashby. Ashby says the heater belongs to Pitt.

"Whoever it belongs to, there is no evidence to show Ashby knew there were drugs in the container.'' The case continues before Chief Justice Austin Ward.