after a row with her landlord.

And Dr. Price -- locked up in the Co-Ed Facility just days before she was due to leave Bermuda -- was only allowed to return home to Canada after Health Minister Nelson Bascome stepped in to help.

It is understood a furious Mr. Bascome personally escorted Dr. Price -- sacked from her post in May -- to the airport to make sure she had no further trouble.

Yesterday, Mr. Bascome declined to comment on the circumstances of Dr. Price's difficulty with the law.

But he said: "I just made sure she had safe passage home to Canada.'' But one source said: "The circumstances were very definitely unfortunate and uncalled for.

"There were ways in which it could have been handled a lot better than it was.'' It is believed that Dr. Price -- sacked in controversial circumstances from her senior post with the NDC -- was arrested on a civil warrant.

She is understood to have been arrested on July 14 -- and is believed to have been held overnight.

The following day Dr. Price was in custody at the women's section of the Co-ed Facility in St. George's.

The arrest is understood to have happened in the wake of a dispute with the landlord of Dr. Price's Warwick home.

A writ by Kevin R. Mahoney was filed against Dr. Price earlier this month at the Supreme Court registry.

But The Royal Gazette was unable to contact Mr. Mahoney yesterday to establish if the legal action was connected to Dr. Price's arrest.

Dr. Price could not be contacted for comment and Police press officers declined to confirm or deny that Dr. Price had been arrested.

The NDC treatment co-ordinator was sacked in May after a "turf war'' over a youth programme.

She was told her services were no longer required in a personal visit to her home by NDC chairman Malcolm Butterfield -- while she was off work ill.

It is understood that she was fired after she refused to follow NDC executive director Derrick Binns' instructions in a row within the Bermuda Youth Counselling Services programme.

Drugs war insiders said Dr. Price was told to sort out the squabble by Dr.

Binns, but was booted out after she followed instructions from the NDC advisory council, not Dr. Binns.

And they claimed the work of the NDC had been handicapped by "infighting'' -- and that Dr. Price was just the latest victim.

Mr. Bascome ordered a full report on the incident after The Royal Gazette revealed the sacking.

But he later said he was "satisfied'' with the way the matter had been handled.