Ex-Leader of Panama Convicted - April 1992

Gen. Manuel Noriega, former military ruler of Panama, was convicted, April 9, in U.S. District Court in Miami of racketeering, drug trafficking, and money laundering. Noriega, the first foreign head of state convicted by a U.S. jury, had been seized by U.S. forces early in 1990 after the American invasion of Panama. At the trial, witnesses, many of them convicted drug traffickers themselves, tied Noriega to the Medellin drug cartel. The government sought to show that Noriega had taken millions of dollars in bribes from the cartel. Testifying for the defense, Adm. Daniel Murphy (ret), chief of staff for Vice Pres. George Bush during the 1980s, said that Noriega had cooperated with U.S. efforts to intercept drug shipments. On July 10, Judge William Hoeveler sentenced Noriega to 40 years in prison.