A convicted drug importer described earning tens of thousands of dollars working as a mule for an alleged trafficker who is now on trial.

Ivan Albouy, 40, was caught out on his last job bringing in $348,450 worth of ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis and jailed for five years.

Yesterday, Mr. Albouy took the Supreme Court stand as a witness against the alleged director of the importation plot, Derek Burchall, 43, from Sandys.

Burchall stands charged with conspiring with Mr. Albouy and others not before the court to import ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis, but denies the allegations.

Mr. Albouy told the jury Burchall was his client when he was a self-employed barber working at 2001 Cuts in Court Street, earning $550-$600 per week.

One day in 2006, Burchall nicknamed Ponni offered him the chance to make extra money by bringing bags to and from Jamaica.

Mr. Albouy said he knew the bags contained illegal drugs, but Burchall told him he would not be taking a risk.

"I said 'are you sure about this? Is it something where I wouldn't have to have a big risk?' And he assured me that I wouldn't," he told the jury.

Mr. Albouy said each time he travelled to Jamaica, Burchall would pay for his $1,200 air ticket, supply him with some luggage bags, and give him $1,500 spending money.

Mr. Albouy called a man nicknamed Barker in Jamaica, who would collect the bags from him then return them towards the end of his trip. Meanwhile, Mr. Albouy, a father-of-two, stayed at a hotel and spent his spare time "with leisure stuff (like) hang out at bars and meet women. Party."

When he got back to Bermuda, he said, he would hand the bags over to Burchall and get paid in cash thousands of dollars at a time. Mr. Albouy made the Jamaica trip three or four times in 2006, and before he was caught, he estimated he made a total profit of $60,000 to $70,000.

"I paid bills and did a lot of gambling and partying, wherever I felt like going. I didn't save too much of it," he told the jury.

Mr. Albouy also took cash to Jamaica at Burchall's request and handed it over to Barker.

"Sometimes it was $10,000, sometimes it was $15,000" he explained.

In July 2007, he was stopped and searched by customs officers at Newark airport in New Jersey on his way home to Bermuda. Cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis were found in the bags and a pair of shoes.

Mr. Albouy was told he would be charged, and he had further conversations with the Bermuda authorities that resulted in him participating in a sting operation to catch Burchall.

Mr. Albouy was given two bags back, and when he got home to his studio apartment in Cedar Avenue, Devonshire, there were two undercover narcotics officers waiting for him. He took them into his apartment where he contacted Burchall to arrange for him to come and collect the bags.

When he did so, the officers waited around a corner as Mr. Albouy handed two luggage bags, concealed inside trash bags, over to Burchall, who then left.

Mr. Albouy was arrested, and subsequently charged with conspiracy to import drugs. He pleaded guilty and was handed a five-year sentence. Mr. Albouy told the jury he did not serve the entire five years, but was not asked to specify how long he spent in jail.

He is now working as a truck driver and living in Warwick. He told the court he did not use drugs himself prior to getting involved in the crime in 2006, or supply them.

Prosecutor Nicole Smith told the jury in her opening speech: "This conspiracy operated at the direction of Burchall, and Albouy is the mere mule."

In January this year, he attended an identification parade at Prospect Police headquarters where he picked Burchall out of an ID parade.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Rick Woolridge, Mr. Albouy denied an allegation that he used to supply drugs on Court Street. He further denied making allegations against Burchall in order to get a lighter prison sentence himself.

The case continues.