Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Noriega Aided Drug Barons, Witness Says

Drug barons fleeing Colombia after assassinating that nation’s crusading justice minister paid $5 million in protection money to former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega, a witness at the Miami drug trial of Noriega said. Jose Cabrera, a drug trafficker now serving a 30-year sentence, said he was a major transporter for Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel. He testified that when the cartel’s leaders fled to Panama in the spring of 1984, they were met at a Panamanian resort island by the country’s leader, Noriega, who greeted them with: “Welcome, muchachos , you have nothing to fear.”