yesterday to be near her sister who has been arrested for alleged drugs smuggling.

Mrs. Fubler, an American who has lived in Bermuda for several years, was devastated when told of her sister's arrest.

Deborah Woolcock, 32, was arrested at Manila airport allegedly in possession of 1.25 kilos of heroin, thought to have a street value of more than $300,000.

She was picked up by US Drug Enforcement Administration officers as she tried to board a United Airlines flight to San Francisco via Seoul, South Korea.

Ms Woolcock, who is from the Bronx, New York, was accompanied by a three-year-old girl who was said to be her daughter.

Last night, a friend described how Mrs. Fubler, 34, was stunned when her sister broke the news to her in a tearful phone call from a Filipino prison.

"Deborah told Gina she was afraid she might be hanged,'' said the friend.

"Gina decided to get the first flight over there to be at her sister's side.

"There is some talk that she will take care of the little girl and possibly even bring her back to Bermuda.'' The maximum sentence for drugs offences in the Philippines is life imprisonment, although there are currently calls for capital punishment to be brought in.

It is the second drugs nightmare to hit Mrs. Fubler over the last three years.

In April, 1989, she and her Bermudian husband, Anson Fubler, were both convicted of importing to Bermuda nearly two kilos of cocaine with a street value of more than $1 million.

They were each given 20-year prison sentences, the heaviest drugs sentences in Bermuda history at the time, but Mrs. Fubler was set free after a retrial jury unanimously found her not guilty.

At his trial, Mr. Fubler, 29, was said to be a small cog in a large drugs syndicate which had smuggled between 30 and 40 kilos of cocaine to Bermuda. A month after his conviction, Mr. Fubler tried to escape from Casemates prison but his bid failed when he broke his leg after leaping from a 50 foot prison wall.

He still has another 17 years of his sentence to run. After her trial ordeal, Mrs. Fubler decided to stay in Bermuda and is currently living at Mullet Bay Road, St. George's.

Until a few weeks ago, she was selling timeshare units at the Hamiltonian Hotel and Island Club.

But she lost her job when the sales team was disbanded after two Americans were caught working without permits and fled the Island.

Her sister is suspected of being part of a Nigerian-based drugs ring which uses American women to take drugs from Thailand and Burma to the United States via Manila.

Drug rings use women as couriers because they believe they are less likely to be searched by customs officers, said a Drug Enforcement Administration officer.

Mrs. Gina Fubler.