U.S., Mexico Probers Tie Noriega to Tijuana Lab, Illicit Steroid Sales

Mexican and U.S. investigators have uncovered links between Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega and a Tijuana laboratory that has been charged with illegally producing huge volumes of body-building steroids for illicit sale in the United States, a U.S. prosecutor confirmed Thursday.

Phillip L. B. Halpern, the assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego who successfully prosecuted a series of steroid cases tied to the Tijuana laboratory, said he understood that Noriega had some kind of ownership interest in the laboratory, but he declined to be more specific. Mexican press reports had quoted Mexican Atty. Gen. Enrique Alvarez del Castillo as saying that Noriega was the principal owner of the firm, Laboratorios Milano de Mexico.

Noriega is under indictment in the United States on drug-smuggling charges unrelated to steroids. Halpern said he could only be charged in connection with the Tijuana laboratory if it were proven that he had an interest and knew of the smuggling being done into the United States.

After an extensive investigation, Mexican authorities shut down the laboratory last April, seized a large volume of drugs and arrested a dozen suspects, including a prominent professor of chemistry and a number of Americans.

It was during that investigation, Halpern said, that Mexican officials uncovered information linking Noriega to the laboratory. U.S. officials cooperated in the inquiry.

Juan Javier Macklis, described by U.S. authorities as the owner of record of the laboratory, has been indicted on steroid-related charges by a federal grand jury in San Diego. He is a fugitive. His son, also named Juan Macklis, was among those arrested by Mexican authorities. When arrested, the son claimed to be the owner of the firm, according to Mexican law enforcement officials.

U.S. authorities charged that the lab operators produced counterfeit versions of the drugs--which are coveted by some bodybuilders and other athletes--and packaged them with false labels, often using the names of legitimate drug companies such as Squibb and Ciba Geigy.

The drugs have potentially dangerous side effects, including liver damage, cancer and heart disease.