A drug mule has been jailed for two years.

Curtis Azhar, 43, was sentenced in Magistrates’ Court yesterday after previously admitting trying to bring more than three kilograms of cannabis into Bermuda through LF Wade International Airport on March 17 this year.

Customs officers stopped him as he returned from a three-day trip to Atlanta, carrying a boxing bag inside a duffel bag.

An X-ray of the bag showed objects inside which contained a plantlike material.

Azhar, from Augustine Road, Pembroke, was carrying 3,084 grams of cannabis with an estimated street value of $154,000.

His lawyer, Dantae Williams, told the court that Azhar, the father of a young daughter, was a professional chef who had found himself in financial difficulties.

“There’s no excuse for offending behaviour but previously he was a man of good character,” said Mr Williams, who highlighted that his client had pleaded guilty and had shown a great deal of remorse. “He made a decision he will regret for the rest of his life.”

Azhar apologised and said that he wanted to “let my family know how much I love them”.

He said: “I never denied any of it. I accept my fate.”

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said that he would take into account Azhar’s guilty plea, his “genuine remorse” and that he had no previous convictions.

But he said that, given the “large amount of cannabis” involved, he had to impose a custodial sentence “designed to deter others not to take the kind of risk you took”.

Mr Tokunbo said: “A risk you took knowing it was a gamble; a gamble that you lost. You know better. It was probably the dumbest decision of your life.”

Mr Tokunbo sentenced Azhar to two years in prison with immediate effect.

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