A narcotics officer has admitted Police lost track of drugs, evidence in a Supreme Court trial, for nine months.

Sgt. Det. Dennis Gordon testified yesterday in the case against Gregory Ryan Ashby, of Pembroke.

Ashby faces charges of importing more than $220,000 worth of cannabis hidden inside a water heater between February 14 and 21 last year.

The 40-year-old man also faces a charge of possessing and handling the drugs with the intent to supply.

Det. Sgt. Gordon explained that three identical brown paper bags -- one containing only packaging, two containing cannabis -- were taken to the Magistrates' Court to be entered as evidence in May last year.

After the proceedings, a clerk mistakenly gave Police the bag containing only packaging, he said.

And one of the bags containing cannabis was left unsecured at the Supreme Court Registrar's office.

The mix-up was not discovered until February this year when Police began preparing for the trial.

Det. Sgt. Gordon said a court clerk then exchanged tags on the two bags and gave the cannabis to him to keep at Police headquarters.

He also admitted the date of seizure placed on the bags -- February 29, 1997 -- was obviously wrong.

The actual date of seizure was February 19, 1997.

"There were some very, very unhappy events in the chain of procedures,'' said defence counsel, Archibald Warner.

But Det. Sgt. Gordon told Mr. Warner that despite the mistaken tags and date, the integrity of the evidence bags had been maintained.

A Police expert estimated the 4,445 grams of cannabis to be worth from $60,000 to $222,450, depending on the method of sale.