importing more than $12,000 of cannabis inside a pair of Nike sneakers.

Dijuan Simons, of Spice Hill Road, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court on Tuesday to importing a controlled drug.

Prosecutor Sgt. Donald Grant told the court Simons was arrested shortly after arriving from New York on October 7 last year.

While standing at the Customs bench at the airport, a drug sniffing dog alerted Narcotics officers to Simons' feet.

And an X-ray of the 23-year-old's footwear showed foreign objects in each of the sneakers' soles.

Customs officials and narcotic officers eventually pulled apart the shoes and discovered packages wrapped in brown tape.

Later analysis showed each shoe contained about 120 grams of cannabis.

Simons -- who was represented yesterday by lawyer Richard Hector -- told Police the shoes were his and said he had bought them locally.

But he denied any knowledge of the drugs.

According to Simons, he had agreed to deliver $1,500 to a woman in Jamaica as a favour for a local man.

Once in Jamaica, Simons claimed he gave the money to a man but never wore the shoes.

After his arrest in Bermuda, Simons assisted Police in a controlled delivery attempt which led to the arrest of another man who was not named yesterday.

Senior Magistrate Arthur Hodgson ordered Simons to serve two years in prison.