Noriega Prosecutors Rest; Accused Wins 20-Day Recess : Trial: Defense wants to study newly introduced U.S. intelligence files. Government’s case took 13 weeks to present.

Federal prosecutors rested their racketeering and drug-smuggling case against deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega on Tuesday, while defense attorneys obtained a 20-day recess in the trial to examine the files of a previously unknown U.S. intelligence-gathering operation.

The trial was recessed until Jan. 6 after prosecutors called a handwriting expert as the last of 46 witnesses to testify over a period of three months.

The final witness, Gideon Epstein, identified Noriega’s writing on a drug-related note found among the general’s possessions during the U.S. invasion of Panama two years ago.

The criminal case against the former strongman--seized during the December, 1989, invasion--was outlined to jurors principally by a series of confessed felons. At least eight of them had made deals with the government after being accused of conspiring with Noriega to ship tons of Colombian cocaine through Panama into the United States.

Frank A. Rubino, Noriega’s chief attorney, asked for the 20-day delay in the start of his defense to study the files of Operation Negocios, in which Noriega’s Panama Defense Forces cooperated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 1983 to 1987 by reporting the names of money launderers passing through Panama.

Prosecutors acknowledged that they had learned only recently of the Negocios (“business” in Spanish) file but insisted that Noriega’s cooperation with DEA was limited. However, Rubino told U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler that the material could be “the backbone of our case” and said that he expects to call DEA witnesses in early January.

Some of the government’s witnesses over a 13-week period gave firsthand accounts of delivering cash payoffs to Noriega, who in return, they said, allowed Colombia’s notorious Medellin cartel to land drug-laden planes in Panama and to stash their U.S.-bound cocaine along landing strips there.

Floyd Carlton-Caceres, Noriega’s personal pilot, said that he was the dictator’s intermediary with cartel leaders and that Noriega demanded up to $150,000 for each drug flight. Carlton said that he delivered packages of cash at the general’s instructions to Lt. Col. Luis A. del Cid, Noriega’s trusted aide.

Del Cid testified that he gave the packages to Noriega in his office, where he watched his commander lock them in a safe. Both Carlton-Caceres and Del Cid acknowledged that they were testifying under terms of a plea agreement in hopes of gaining leniency.

Another convicted drug dealer, American Steven Kalish, told of bringing a briefcase stuffed with $300,000 to Noriega’s office in 1983 to seal a deal that allowed him to ship marijuana through Panama and launder his cash profits in Panama’s banks.

A companion, Jorge Martinez, said that he remembered Noriega telling Kalish at the end of their visit: “You forgot your briefcase.” He said Kalish replied: “No, general, that’s for you.”

The government sought to prove that Noriega, during his rise in the military to “maximum leader” of Panama, received at least $15 million in bribes. But some of the evidence was only indirect.

For example, Ricardo Bilonick, a former associate of Noriega’s who once was his special representative in Washington, testified that the Medellin cartel paid Noriega $500,000 per drug flight--a total of nearly $10 million--for the use of Panama-based INAIR Airlines, of which Bilonick was part owner.

Bilonick conceded on cross-examination, however, that he never personally saw Noriega receive any funds. “No, sir, not with my own eyes,” he told Rubino.

Carlos Lehder, the only Medellin cartel leader in U.S. custody, corroborated Bilonick’s testimony that the cartel “bought” Noriega. But Lehder also acknowledged that he never had met the general.

In the same vein, Lehder and other witnesses said that the cartel once paid Noriega $4 million to $5 million to permit construction of a cocaine-processing laboratory in the jungles of Panama. But they agreed that the money could only be traced as far as Col. Julian Melo, a top aide to Noriega.

Rubino suggested repeatedly to the jury that Melo may have pocketed the bribe. When the deal went sour, Noriega drummed Melo out of the military but never imprisoned him, according to testimony.

Rubino, in fact, suggested that several other government witnesses may have pocketed cash bribes while falsely accusing Noriega. One witness, drug dealer Hector Lopez, drew laughter from the jury by responding to Rubino: “Sir, anyone who tried to trade on Gen. Noriega’s name would not have a very long life.”

Others called by the prosecution gave circumstantial evidence of having seen Noriega in attendance at private meetings with Medellin cartel members in Colombia.

One of the last government witnesses, Amjad Awan, Noriega’s personal banker, was called to discuss records showing $23 million in deposits--most of it in cash--that Noriega placed in the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

Amjad, however, said that he could not be certain that this money represented drug payoffs.