Noriega Convicted: 30 Years for Drug Trafficking

A federal jury in Miami convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering on April 9, 1992, concluding the most extraordinary criminal prosecution of a foreign head of state in American legal history. Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, later reduced to 30. The trial exposed a relationship between Noriega and the United States intelligence community that was far more entangled than either government wanted to acknowledge. Noriega had been a CIA asset since the late 1960s, receiving payments that eventually reached $200,000 per year. He provided intelligence on Cuban and Nicaraguan activities in Central America, allowed the CIA to establish listening posts in Panama, and facilitated American support for the Contras fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. In exchange, the United States tolerated his consolidation of power in Panama following the suspicious death of Omar Torrijos in a 1981 plane crash, his manipulation of elections, and mounting evidence of his involvement in drug trafficking. The relationship soured in the mid-1980s as Noriega's drug connections became impossible to ignore. He had been facilitating cocaine shipments for Colombia's Medellin cartel, allowing drug flights through Panamanian airspace, and laundering cartel money through Panamanian banks. A 1988 federal grand jury in Miami indicted him on drug charges, the first time a sitting head of state had been indicted by a U.S. court. Noriega responded by annulling a 1989 election he had lost and declaring himself "Maximum Leader of National Liberation." President George H.W. Bush ordered Operation Just Cause on December 20, 1989, sending 27,684 American troops into Panama to remove Noriega from power. The operation killed an estimated 200 to 300 Panamanian civilians and 23 American soldiers. Noriega took refuge in the Vatican embassy, where American forces famously blasted rock music at the building around the clock. He surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was flown to Miami for trial. Noriega served 17 years in U.S. federal prison, was then extradited to France for money laundering, sentenced to seven years, and finally returned to Panama in 2011, where he died in custody in 2017.