Families of Brothers to the Rescue members who were shot down by Fidel Castro's air force in 1996 have opened a new front in their bid to collect damages for the loss of their loved ones.

The target: 30 years worth of frozen royalty money paid by AT&T to the Cuban government. The precise amount is unknown. But it is part of $178.2 million in ``blocked assets'' that have occupied U.S. bank accounts since Castro seized control of the island nearly four decades ago.

Lawyers have persuaded Senior District Judge James Lawrence King to authorize the taking of money in the wake of congressional passage of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 1999. Last week, President Clinton signed the massive bill into law -- which includes a small provision allowing people who hold judgments against Cuba to collect from a pool of frozen assets that had been blocked by the Treasury Department.

The provision requires the State and Treasury departments to assist the courts and the U.S. Marshals Service to help locate frozen assets.

In December 1997 -- a year after Cuban MiGs shot down two Cessnas near Cuba's coast -- King awarded more than $187.6 million in damages to the families of Miami area residents Aramando Alejandre, Carlos Alberto Costa and Mario de la Pena.

The Cuban government never appeared before King.

King found the Cuban government in default. He heard evidence about the shootdown and took testimony about mental suffering and economic damages inflicted on the men's families.

According to papers filed last week in U.S. District Court in Miami, the families' lawyers ``have on several occasions'' asked the Treasury Department to help locate the blocked assets, ``but such information has not been provided.'' The papers are signed by the Miami lawyers who pressed the families' lawsuits: Roberto Martinez, a former U.S. attorney for South Florida, and Frank Angones and Aaron Podhurst.

The lawyers declined to discuss the order Monday but have scheduled a news conference today.

During their search, the lawyers said in court papers, they learned that some of the frozen assets include AT&T payments to Cuba, which have occupied bank accounts established by the corporation.

The money -- which is believed to be in the millions -- constitutes ``settlement payments'' or royalties from AT&T for the right to use Cuba's telecommunications system when its customers made long-distance calls between the United States and the island. Between 1963 and the early 1990s, AT&T deposited all of the royalty money earmarked for Cuba into the blocked accounts.

An AT&T spokesman said Monday that the company's legal department had not received the ``writ of execution'' signed by King and could not discuss it. But the spokesman, Gustavo Alfonso, said the money in question is not under AT&T's control.

``That money is not AT&T's money,'' he said. ``That money, or those funds, are under the control of the U.S. government.''

The families face another obstacle: Clinton, moments after signing the appropriations bill, issued a ``Presidential Determination'' seeking to block the collection requirements ``in the interest of national security.''