kilos of cocaine from the US look set to discover their fate at the end of this month.

Former Bermuda Customs Officer Betty Azzario and her co-accused Dennis Robinson could appear in a New York court within three weeks to be sentenced for their roles in trying to smuggle the drug onto a Bermuda-bound plane at JFK airport.

Azzario, who has been in custody since her arrest last December, will be sentenced after Robinson, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to importing cocaine and conspiracy charges.

Robinson, a former Bermuda national soccer team player, will be sentenced unless he carries through with a request to change his guilty plea. He has until October 26 to file a notice to withdraw the plea.

US attorney Jack Smith told The Royal Gazette that the notice had not been filed and it would be up to a judge to decide whether he could be granted his request.

If the notice was not filed, he said they intended to go ahead with sentencing after October 26.

Robinson, who originally pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute narcotics, asked at a hearing in August to change his mind, claiming he was badly advised when he admitted the charge in March.

Azzario was arrested at JFK airport after Drug Enforcement Agencies received a tip off. She had tried to use phoney Bermuda Customs documents and fake cocaine, used in training, to throw officers off the trail.

After confessing, she identified Robinson as her accomplice and set him up in a sting operation. He was arrested at a Manhattan hotel when she handed the package over to him in the lobby.

Both are in custody pending the next hearing.