Miami drug ring, which smuggled kilos of cocaine to Bermuda for a decade, admitted ordering a courier's murder.

The courier was American Deborah Owens who was alleged by local prosecutors to have been the girlfriend of drugs prisoner Dexter Dillas.

According to a transcript of Marcus Cojab's guilty plea, entered in a private hearing, he admitted conspiring with Owens' brother Harry to kill her.

They believed she had informed on their drug organisation and her cooperation led to the arrest of Harry's girlfriend, also a courier, in Bermuda.

Cojab admitted arranging for a gun to be sent to Owens' brother Harry to kill her, the transcript revealed. Owens was allegedly gunned down by her brother in New Jersey in August 1990. He is now also believed dead.

The Crown alleged in a recent drugs trial that Owens was pregnant with Dillas' child at the time.

The transcript and other court records were obtained on Tuesday by the Asbury Park Press newspaper after a lengthy legal battle.

But there are still some records that remain sealed, angering Asbury Park Press court reporter Ms Elaine Silvestrini.

She told The Royal Gazette yesterday a judge had ordered all documents to be unsealed. The newspaper was planning to go back to court to obtain the remaining documents.

New Jersey prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty for Cojab who had originally pleaded not guilty to the Owens murder charge.

But Cojab was spared that possibility when the US Federal Government took over the case and moved it to New York.

Alleging a "cover up'', the newspaper sought to find out why, and whether Cojab had changed his plea.

The 25 pages of documents released on Tuesday also revealed Cojab agreed to cooperate with "various law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, in unspecified investigations'', the newspaper reported.

"But the reason for the unusual secrecy surrounding the case of Marcus Cojab remained, for the most part a mystery, as the documents contained little information that was not already publicly known,'' the newspaper said in an article yesterday.

"Likewise, it remained unclear exactly why the federal government took the extraordinary step of saving the life of the head of a narcotics trafficking organisation who ordered a murder.'' Cojab's name and his mansion in Miami and alleged local dealings were mentioned throughout a recent drug importation trial in which the Bermudian defendant was acquitted of all charges.