secretly taped defence witness Dexter Dillas bragging about sordid dealings with a Cuban cocaine trafficking ring.

But Dexter Dillas took the stand and denied making at least a dozen of the statements on the recording.

Dillas was testifying in the trial of alleged drug smuggler Larry Ebbin, his old roommate.

Reading from a transcript of the tape, Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly spent the entire afternoon putting extracts to him.

Despite the fact his name is mentioned by Roberts and another cellmate throughout the recording, the witness repeatedly responded: "I do not recall saying that'' or "I didn't say that''.

Dillas also denied making the statements despite having admitted the damning tape was the reason he decided to change his plea to guilty at his own drugs trial last October.

However, the witness accepted he did have a conversation with Roberts about cocaine dealing -- though he could not recall when.

Roberts told the jury he made the tape last May when he shared a cell with Dillas and two other men, and then handed it over to Police.

Inmates are allowed to have tapes and tape recorders as part of their personal possessions, he said.

The jury heard Roberts had skipped the Island while on bail awaiting trial.

And after being sentenced to seven years for drug offences, he tried to run away from prison guards while at the doctor where he had been taken because he was "attacked'' at Casemates' Prison and an inmate had bitten his finger off.

But Roberts, who has served about two years of his sentence, denied defence lawyer Mr. Archie Warner's charge that he would do "anything'' to get out of jail.

Roberts had been called to the stand to verify the authenticity of the tape.

After being presented with the tape, he told the court it was the one he used to record Dillas.

Mr. Doorly had asked for the tape's transcript to be admitted so he could prove "inconsistencies'' in Dillas' testimony. He told Puisne Judge the Hon.

Mrs. Justice Wade that Dillas had implied that all his witnesses had lied on the stand.

Dillas, serving 18 years for importing cocaine, has denied knowing the Cuban brothers who headed the vast drug ring, Marcus Cojab and Hugo Mata. And he claims he never met couriers Julio Junkie and Victor Alongi. Neither did he know Angela Trapasso was a courier.

Dillas has also denied knowing a third courier, Deborah Lee Owens, whom Mr.

Doorly submitted was pregnant with his child when she was gunned down in New Jersey, allegedly by the Cubans.

Dillas has further testified Ebbin did not know he was a "cocaine distributor'' and his roommate's only role in the conspiracy was selling about five "wraps'' of cocaine for him.

The Cuban's "man in Bermuda'' Antonio Miranda has told jurors he sold Ebbin half of some 11 kilos of cocaine.

Reading from the tape's transcript, Mr. Doorly put it to Dillas that he said, referring to Owens: "The one who was supposed to be having my baby -- she (expletive) brought 12 kilos in by herself ... Then came Julio Junkie. He bought about five kilos....

"Marcus Cojab -- that's the guy I worked for up in the US...after Julio came Ruize, after Ruize came (Antonio) Miranda and after Debbie came Angela Trapasso.

Dillas insisted he could not recall or did not say any of the statements.

"Could you have said them?'' Mrs. Justice Wade asked.

"I don't think so. I don't recall saying those words,'' he replied. Mr.

Doorly went on to quote further statements made by Dillas in the transcript: "This guy -- he worked for Ted (Ming) -- went out to the woods in the back of the house to (expletive) one day. I don't know what made him go up but I found about $120,000 gone when I went to dig it up...I had a fit.'' Mr. Doorly put it to him he told Roberts that to "freak out'' the construction worker whom he thought took the cash, he buried his tool box in the same spot.

He claimed Dillas told inmates the man came to his door three days later and said, "I can't do this -- I got you guys' money''.

Dillas denied any knowledge of the incident saying, "It didn't happen.'' He also denied saying: "Marcus (Cojab) called me the other day from prison in New Jersey -- he was the one up for murder -- he was the one on my side and he told me to fight it...He organised (the shooting of Deborah Owens) but he's going to beat that...I was striking her (Owens) a whole year...She was on a federal programme and due to come down to Bermuda and testify in the trial.'' Ebbin, 35, 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. He was arrested in May 1990 during a drug raid on his Southampton apartment.