of America and into Canada, included Bermuda in its vast network in 1988 after realising the value of the local cocaine market.

This was the evidence of US prisoner Victor Alongi, flown here to testify in the trial of Larry Ebbin, 35, who stands accused of drug smuggling.

Alongi, in jail for cocaine trafficking, yesterday told Supreme Court of his sordid dealings with three Cuban brothers who headed the Miami-based drug empire.

He told jurors he was beaten at gunpoint on the brothers' private yacht in the Gulf of Mexico after they learned he had made two drug runs to Bermuda without telling them.

And he testified how another drug courier, Deborah Owens, was gunned down in America after she threatened to go to Police if her pay demands weren't met.

Alongi testified that the Cubans paid him to run drugs to Bermuda and give them to a woman called Donna. He told Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly he did not know Donna's last name.

In the space of a year he said he smuggled three kilos of cocaine to Bermuda, arriving via airplane with the drugs strapped to his waist each time. He used a different name for each trip, he said, verifying the false identity with a birth certificate "bought off the street''.

Jurors heard how Alongi got greedy and decided to smuggle cocaine to Bermuda without telling the Cubans.

He claimed he came here twice on his own and sold 10.5 ounces of cocaine to his Bermuda "connections'': Ebbin and his roommate Dexter Dillas.

Alongi bought the drugs in America for little more than $5,000 and sold them to the men for some $20,000, the court heard.

He testified he first came to Bermuda with no real idea of who he was going to sell the drugs to.

It turned out a man called Tony who he happened to meet at the Cock and Feather pub invited him on board his cruise boat, he said. Bermuda Stroller Ted Ming was entertaining the passengers, and, seeing his long fingernail, Alongi said he approached him thinking he might be "the kind of person interested in something''.

After showing Ming the cocaine in the boat's bathroom, Alongi claimed Ming said it was "good stuff'' and he knew people who might buy it.

He met Ming later at the Southampton Princess hotel where he was introduced to Ebbin and Dillas -- the latter is currently serving 18 years for drug importation.

The deal was made at Ebbin and Dillas' apartment at Ming's house on Crown Hill Lane, Lighthouse Hill in Southampton, Alongi testified.

The second time, he went straight to Ebbin's apartment to sell the drugs.

Alongi testified how his luck ran out when the Cubans learned of his secret trips to Bermuda.

Alongi, thinking he was meeting Hugo Mata, Marcus Cojab and their "man in Bermuda'' Antonio Miranda for dinner, went on board their private yacht.

But several miles off Miami, Miranda pulled a gun on him and the others began beating him up.

Said Alongi: "They'd found out I'd come to Bermuda and that was not to their liking. They felt that Bermuda was their territory.'' Alongi testified he ended up with a severed finger and cracked ribs. Pleading for his life after they threatened to "feed him to the sharks'', he told the Cubans he would introduce them to his Bermuda connections "Larry and Dexter'' whom he claimed "there was plenty of money to be made through''.

A few days later he did just that, he testified, bringing with him half a kilo of cocaine.

After he and Mata made a deal with Ebbin and Dillas, they had thanksgiving dinner upstairs with Ming and his wife, he said.

Under cross examination by defence counsel Mr. Archie Warner, Alongi admitted he was granted immunity from prosecution to come here and testify.

But he denied it was "a great inducement to tell the authorities what they wanted to hear''. He also denied his personal cocaine use had affected his memory.

The lawyer is expected to continue cross examining today when the trial resumes before Puisne Judge the Hon. Mrs. Justice Wade.

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

Ebbin was jailed for 20 years with Ming, Dillas, and Colin Smith. Ming and Smith were later freed by the Appeal Court, but re-trials were ordered for Dillas and Ebbin.

ON TRIAL -- Alleged drug importer Larry Sinclair Ebbin (left) leaves Supreme Court on the first day of his trial yesterday. Victor Alongi (right), serving time in Florida for drug trafficking, returns to Casemates Prison where he is being held while he testifies against Ebbin.