Drug Lords Aided Contras, Ex-Kingpin Testifies

Colombian drug lords gave the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras up to $10 million in the early 1980s, imprisoned kingpin Carlos Lehder testified Monday in Manuel A. Noriega’s drug-smuggling trial.

Lehder, who is trying to reduce his life sentence for drug trafficking by testifying against Noriega, acknowledged the contribution after the defense confronted him with a March, 1990, prison interview he had granted.

“To the best of my knowledge, there was some contribution to the Contra anti-communist movement,” said Lehder, a founding member of the Medellin cocaine cartel. “It could be around $10 million.”

When asked if he provided some of the cartel’s payment to the Contras, Lehder responded: “Apparently I did, sir.”

Defense attorney Frank Rubino asked if the money was in exchange for a U.S. “green light” to ship drugs to the United States through Contra bases in Costa Rica.

“I don’t recall any of that, sir,” Lehder answered. “I do recall that there were shipments going through Costa Rica.”

The government’s attorneys objected repeatedly to questions about the Contras. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler said he would allow limited questioning.

In the prison interview, Lehder had said the drugs were flown by way of a Costa Rican ranch owned by U.S. citizen John Hull, currently a fugitive charged with murder in that Central American country. Hull was major supporter of the Contras in the mid-1980s.

But Lehder testified Monday that he only had “second-hand information” about Hull’s involvement.

The prison interview had been given to a Playboy magazine writer but was never published.

Ex-Contra leader Adolfo Calero, who now lives in Miami, angrily denied the charges Monday.