pellets of cocaine in a bid to smuggle them to US, a judge was told.

But when one of the pellets burst during a September 19 flight to New York, Dianne Margarita Harvey Rennocks awoke to find herself in hospital in Bermuda, accused of importing 457.7 grams of 66-percent pure cocaine worth $118,000 and facing a possible 20 year sentence.

Yesterday, Puisne Justice Norma Wade-Miller jailed Rennocks for 30 months. The sentence follows an appeal last week by defence counsel Elizabeth Christopher, who challenged the jurisdiction of the Bermuda court.

One charge of possession with intent to supply was put to Rennocks yesterday, who pleaded not guilty to intent to supply but guilty to possession.

Madam Justice Wade-Miller told Rennocks that as "reprehensible'' as her actions might have been in trying to get the drugs into the US, she deserved a discount from the maximum local sentence of five years.

"I take into account your guilty plea and I take into account the fact that the drugs were not intended for Bermuda,'' Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller said.

"Thirty months or two and a half years. And time spent in custody is to be taken into account,'' she added.

Rennocks swallowed 70 pellets of latex wrapped cocaine before boarding a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica bound for New York.

The plane diverted to Bermuda and Rennocks told Police she was pregnant before relenting and admitting she had swallowed drugs.

During the jurisdictional hearing, Crown counsel Patrick Doherty argued that where Rennocks originally intended to commit the crime and where she inadvertently landed is immaterial: "She shouldn't be excused from her actions,'' Mr. Doherty explained. "She knowingly took the drugs which made her sick which caused her to be brought to Bermuda and commit these offences.'' Mr. Doherty argued that criminal intent and the criminal act -- the two central planks in any criminal case -- are "one long continuous thing'' in Rennocks' case.

He said: "It's analogous to putting a bomb in your luggage and checking the luggage and then deciding you don't want to go through with it and making efforts to get it off. You've still committed the crime.'' He concluded: "It's obvious she is in Bermuda through her own actions. She was possessing drugs and in my view she was doing it knowingly.''