NATION : Noriega Transit Costs $363,694
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MIAMI — Getting deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega to and from the federal courthouse from his jail cell 24 miles away has cost taxpayers $363,694 since January, when he arrived in south Florida from Panama.
Officials attributed the high tab to the “extraordinary costs of security details” needed.
The $363,000-plus transportation bill, which was obtained by the Miami Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request, included the cost of Noriega’s removal from Panama to Homestead Air Force Base aboard a C-130 military airplane.
The transportation figure does not include the expense of housing, feeding or clothing the former dictator, who was brought to Florida to stand trial on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges after the December, 1989, U.S. invasion of Panama.
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