A man was remanded in Custody Wednesday when he appeared before the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court to answer marijuana charges.

The accused, Shawn Hunter, who was arrested and charged with possession of ganja, dealing in ganja and attempting to export ganja, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before Resident Magistrate Georgianna Fraser.

He was booked to reappear in court on July 1.

Hunter, a resident of Clarendon, was arrested and charged after airport security allegedly found five-and-a-half pounds of compressed marijuana in a hidden compartment in his suitcase at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

Hunter, who at first pleaded “guilty with explanation”, said while it was his suitcase and that he was the one who packed it, he was unaware that the suitcase had a secret compartment with the compressed marijuana as he wasn’t the one who bought it.

When asked by RM Fraser who bought the suitcase in question, Hunter said a friend purchased it a week before he was to leave the island for Curacao. The accused told the court that the friend bought the suitcase for him as he was unable to make it to Kingston to buy it himself.

When the magistrate asked Hunter why he could not have bought the suitcase in Clarendon, he said that he did not know of anywhere in the parish that sold suitcases.

The magistrate then told him she has only passed through Clarendon a few times and yet she knows of places that sell suitcases, so it was strange that Hunter, who has lived in Clarendon all his life, was unaware of such places.

Hunter who wanted the charges against him to be dropped, said he was going to Curacao to shop. He was later remanded in custody and the date was set for his return to court.