WESTERN BUREAU — Canadian resident Nadine Watson, who is said to be suffering from cancer, was granted $350,000 bail when she appeared in court on drug charges this week, after checks made by the court gave credence to her story that she was unaware that over a pound of cocaine was hidden in a suitcase she checked onto a flight on March 5.

Watson was allegedly caught with the illegal substance when a sniffer dog alerted an investigator to the suitcase she had checked in at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

The suitcase was searched and the drugs found inside the supporting rim. The Canadian resident was later slapped with charges of possession of, dealing in and attempting to export cocaine.

But inside the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court Monday, her attorney Ernest Davis said his client was innocent of the charges against her and asked that she be allowed bail.

According to the attorney, the suitcase in which the drug was found did not belong to his client but to the baby she was asked to accompany to Canada.

Watson was given the baby and the suitcase at the airport, Davis said. He added that she was cautious enough to search the suitcase and have all the items except the baby’s clothing — including some frozen fish — removed from the suitcase.

But despite the precautions taken, the attorney argued, Watson was now facing drug charges because she did not know, nor would she have thought to examine the suitcase’s supporting rim. That, he said, would have required her tearing the luggage apart. That aside, the attorney said, the suitcase was initially tagged with the baby’s name but his client had tagged it with her own name on the advice of the airline’s check-in clerk. The name switch was made as Watson was the adult member of the travelling party of two.

In court Monday, Davis asked that his client, who has cancer, be offered bail to allow her to keep a doctor’s appointment next week.

RM Paulette Williams later offered Watson bail in the sum of $350,000 after establishing that she had in fact been travelling with a baby who was collected by its mother on Sunday. It was also brought to the court’s attention that the suitcase did contain baby clothes.

As a condition of her bail, Watson was instructed to surrender her travel documents and to report regularly to the Lionel Town police station in Clarendon. She is to report there every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Should she take up the bail offer, she is to remain with her relatives in Clarendon until March 31 when the case is to be mentioned again. The forensic certificate should have been added to the case file by that time.