Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Money Laundering Described at Trial

U.S. agents watched as Medellin cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in cocaine profits through Panama’s notorious First Inter-Americas Bank, a drug agent testified in the Miami trial of Manuel A. Noriega. Thomas Telles, stationed in Panama for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 1984 through 1986, was subpoenaed to testify for the defense. DEA officials have insisted that although there may have been some cooperation, Noriega and his men could not be trusted in Panamanian drug investigations.