Ex-Aide Tells How Noriega Built Up Power : Drugs: Del Cid testifies that the then-major gained control of key agencies in ‘70s. Talks reportedly are under way to obtain taped testimony from Castro.

A former top military aide to Manuel A. Noriega testified Thursday that the former Panamanian strongman began amassing great power 20 years ago while only a major in his nation’s army.

Noriega consolidated the functions of national intelligence, immigration, customs and passports under his control soon after he took charge of the military intelligence office in the early 1970s, according to the former aide, Lt. Col. Luis A. del Cid.

“Nothing came in through the airport (at Panama City) that Noriega did now know about,” Del Cid told jurors during the third day of testimony in Noriega’s trial here on racketeering and drug smuggling charges.

The witness, who pleaded guilty last December to one count of conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the United States, testified earlier this week that he personally had given Noriega the cash proceeds of illicit drug sales from Colombian narcotics traffickers.

However, before the government could elicit further details from him on this allegation Thursday, U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler abruptly recessed the trial until Monday because of the sudden illness of the assistant prosecutor’s father.

Myles Malman, the government lawyer who was questioning Del Cid, received word that his father apparently had suffered a heart attack at his Miami home. Hoeveler postponed the proceedings after telling jurors only that an unrelated “medical emergency” had arisen.

In another development, Sam Burstyn, the attorney who helped Del Cid negotiate his plea bargain, said talks are under way to obtain videotaped testimony from Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Castro would be asked questions about a 1984 meeting in Havana that included Noriega and Del Cid. Prosecutors have said Del Cid and others will testify that Castro, at Noriega’s request, helped restore peace between the Panamanian strongman and Colombian narcotics dealers after Panamanian soldiers raided and shut down a cocaine-processing lab in Panama that the Colombians allegedly had paid Noriega to protect.

The government has evidence that, as part of the peace accord, Noriega termed the raid a mistake, released Colombian workers who had been arrested and refunded millions of dollars in protection money. The angry leaders of the Medellin drug cartel, in return, allegedly withdrew their threat to assassinate Noriega.

Frank A. Rubino, Noriega’s defense attorney, has said Castro wants to tell jurors that the meeting was held only to discuss foreign policy. Attorney Burstyn said that “a deal is in the works” for Rubino and federal prosecutors to travel to Havana to videotape Castro’s testimony.

Del Cid said Noriega’s ties to Colombian drug traffickers were apparent as early as 1981, when Noriega asked him and Ricardo Bilonick, a Panamanian diplomat, to negotiate the release of Marta Ochoa, a relative of Colombian drug dealers who had been kidnaped for ransom by the Colombian M-19 guerrilla organization.

The talks were successful and Ochoa was freed, he said.

Noriega is being tried on 10 separate charges of conspiracy, racketeering and drug smuggling for allegedly allowing the Colombians to use Panama as a safe haven for shipping cocaine to the United States and to launder their cash profits in his country’s banks. In return, the ex-dictator allegedly received up to $10 million in bribes.