dollar cocaine conspiracy that he was forced to act in his own interest instead of his client's, it was claimed in Supreme Court yesterday.

Angela Trepasso testified the lawyer's involvement in the Cuban drug empire went much further than an agreement to represent its couriers if something went wrong.

Instead of advising her to cooperate with Police for a chance at a reduced sentence, the lawyer told her not to answer any questions.

"The lawyer did not let me co-operate (with Police) for the simple fact he was also involved,'' she said under heated cross-examination from Mr. Archie Warner, representing alleged drug smuggler Larry Ebbin.

She added: "I wanted to co-operate since the day I was first taken to the Co-Ed Facility, but (the lawyer) would not let me.'' She was responding to Mr. Warner's questions as to why she waited so long to tell Police of his client's and others' alleged involvement in the conspiracy.

Trepasso further testified the lawyer, whom counsel has so far not asked her to name, was "paid on a regular basis (by the Cubans) to keep us out of prison''.

"He knew of our dealings here. So, more or less, that would make him one of us,'' she told the court.

Trepasso told jurors the only reason she agreed to keep the truth from Police was because she was scared of what the Cubans would do to her and her family if they found out she had not listened to their lawyer.

The 28-year-old American was testifying on the third day of Ebbin's trial.

The jury has heard Trepasso was arrested aboard the cruise ship Royal Viking Star in May of 1990.

She had delivered a 2-3 kilo shipment of cocaine to "middle man'' Antonio Miranda and was in her cabin awaiting the liner's departure.

Detectives found $90,000 in her cabin safe, which she later told Police was Miranda's and she was taking it out of the country for him.

Trepasso said the head of the drug ring Marcus Cojab had given her the name of a local lawyer to contact if she was arrested.

But she had been unable at first to contact him as she did not know the name of his law firm.

She testified she later got the name from the US Consulate and gave him the coded message: "I'm with Tony''. She said the message meant she was in trouble for having the money.

The lawyer called her the next day, she said, and told her not to answer any questions and she "would be out in no time''.

While cross-examining, Mr. Warner said she had told a completely different story to Police after her May 1990 arrest.

He suggested the only reason she waited until the last minute to help Police was because she realised it was a certain way of getting a "substantially reduced sentence''.

But Trepasso, conceding she had told a "pack of lies'' to Police, insisted no-one told her she would get a discount if she told all.

Trepasso said she decided to tell Police the whole truth a year later when she learned her close friend Deborah Owens, also a courier for the Cubans, had been gunned down in New Jersey.

She immediately called Det. Sgt. Alex Arnfield and told him she was "ready to co-operate''.

Trepasso agreed with Mr. Warner that she only met Ebbin in Bermuda once. And she conceded she never delivered any shipments of cocaine to him personally.

Mr. Warner went on to suggest Trepasso had trouble remembering things because she was a "junkie''.

But she said she only used the drug on weekends and did not believe it had affected her memory.

Mr. Warner then suggested Trepasso was telling a different version of events from Ebbin's first trial "solely to implicate him''.

But she disagreed, saying she wanted to help Police because the amount of drugs she alone had brought to Bermuda for the Cubans was "enough to kill the whole Island''.

Ebbin has denied importing cocaine between May 11 and May 20 of 1990 and conspiring to import the drug between October 1988 and May 17, 1990 with others not before the court.