Noriega Indicted for Drug Trafficking

MIAMI--Federal prosecutors yesterday unsealed an indictment accusing Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega with accepting $4.6 million to protect cocaine shipments, launder drug money and provide a safe haven in his country for top Colombian smugglers.

The indictment was handed up Thursday, and Noriega dismissed it as "strictly a political act." Legal experts have agreed that it is very unlikely he will ever stand trial.

The indictment details the involvement of Cuban President Fidel Castro, who allegedly mediated a dispute between Noriega and Columbia's Medellin Cartel after Panamanian troops raided a drug laboratory the general protected. But Castro is not charged in the indictment.

"This indictment details for the first time allegations of the central role played by Manuel Antonio Noriega in the international narcotics trade and how he sold his official positions to further narcotics trafficking through Panama," U.S. Attorney Leon Kellner said today.

Also charged in the 12-count indictment were 15 others, including cartel leader Pablo Escobar Gaviria and a top Noriega aide, Capt. Luis del Cid. Cartel leader Jorge Ochoa Vasquez is mentioned in the document, but was not indicted.

"Fidel Castro was not indicted because there was insufficient evidence to charge him," said Kellner.

Noriega could face up to 145 years in prison and fines of more than $1.1 million if convicted on all charges, said prosecutors, who concede it is unlikely Noriega could be extradited.

A second indictment unsealed yesterday in Tampa accuses Noriega of conspiracy to import, distribute and attempt to import in excess of one million pounds of marijuana.

The Miami indictment accuses Noriega of racketeering, and manufacturing, importing and distributing cocaine, as well as traveling to aid the conspiracy.

The indictment says that Noriega, after he took control of Panama in 1983, "utilized his official positions to provide protection for international criminal narcotics traffickers," including the Medellin Cartel, said to be responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine reaching the United States.

Kellner said Noriega received payoffs from Escobar and Ochoa to protect cocaine shipments flown from Medellin, Colombia, through Panama to the United States.

Ochoa and Escobar were indicted in 1986 on federal drug charges, but remain at large.

Noriega also allegedly arranged for the shipment of cocaine processing chemicals, including those seized by Panamanian police agencies and allowed the cartel to construct a cocaine laboratory in Panama's Darien province.

Noriega laundered millions of dollars of the cartel's narcotics proceeds in Panamanian banks, prosecutors said.

When Colombia's anti-drug minister of justice, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, was assassinated by traffickers, Noriega allowed the cartel leaders to shift their operations to Panama to escape a crackdown in their own country.

Only one of the 16 people named in the Miami indictment is in custody. David Rodrigo Ortiz Hermida, allegedly Escobar's pilot, was arrested last year on the Caribbean isle of Guadaloupe after being caught with a cocaine shipment, according to prosecutors. He is being held by French authorities.

The Miami indictment was presented Thursday to Chief U.S. Magistrate Peter Palermo, who ordered it sealed.

The Justice Department reportedly will ask the State Department to notify Noriega of the charges through diplomatic channels.

Noriega told CBS News Thursday night that the federal indictment "is strictly a political act aimed at frightening me and other nationalistic Latin American leaders who dare to criticize the United States."