WESTERN BUREAU — Despite his claim that he was forced into an attempt to swallow and smuggle 59 packages of cocaine out of the island, Christopher Lawrence of Paradise/Norwood in St James was yesterday given a 12-month custodial sentence for violating the Dangerous Drugs Act.

The 24 year-old man was stopped at the Sangster International Airport on March 12 and taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he excreted the packages of the illicit drug. They weighed a total of 13 ounces.

Lawrence was yesterday fined $60,000 or six months in jail on the possession charge. The charge of dealing in the drug was dismissed but for attempting to export the contraband he was fined an additional $100,000 or six months and sentenced to a mandatory 12 months behind bars.

Resident Magistrate Valerie Stephens handed down the ruling despite Lawrence’s pleas.

“I was forced Your Honour,” he told the judge. “It’s two hours before I leave for England that I realise I was going to take drugs Your Honour … I was forced.”

Magistrate Stephens said that she would take his explanation and guilty plea into consideration but informed him there was no chance of him escaping a prison term.

“I am going to give you a custodial sentence because it has to stop,” she told Lawrence.