Noriega Found Guilty of Eight Drug, Racketeering Charges : Courts: He is convicted of allowing the Medellin cartel to ship cocaine through Panama to the United States. The ousted strongman faces up to 120 years in prison.

Deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega was convicted of eight of 10 drug and racketeering charges Thursday, two years after the United States took the extraordinary step of invading his country and arresting him.

The jury returned its verdict on the fifth day of deliberations, just 11 hours of discussion after it had signaled to U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler that it feared it was deadlocked.

Noriega, 58, sitting ramrod straight in his general’s uniform at the defense table, showed no emotion as a court clerk read “guilty” verdicts on eight charges and “not guilty” verdicts on two lesser charges. Seated nearby in the front row of the packed courtroom were his wife, Felicidad, and three grown daughters, two of whom wiped tears from their eyes as they listened.

As the courtroom emptied, defense attorney Frank A. Rubino put his arm around Noriega’s shoulder and whispered briefly to him. Noriega--who never took the stand in his own defense--then was led away by U.S. marshals to a private room to confer with his family.

Hoeveler set sentencing for July 10.

Convicted of allowing Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel to ship tons of U.S.-bound cocaine through Panama in return for cash payoffs, Noriega could receive a maximum sentence of 120 years in prison and almost $1 million in fines.

President Bush hailed the verdict as “a major victory against the drug lords.”

“He was accorded a free and fair trial and he was found guilty,” Bush said during a picture-taking session at the start of a meeting in the White House with Nicaraguan President Violetta Barrios de Chamorro.

“I hope it sends a lesson to drug lords here and around the world that they’ll pay a price if they continue to poison the lives of our kids in this country or anywhere else.”

The verdict was crucial for the Bush Administration, which took a politically risky step when it invaded Panama in December, 1989. The invasion ultimately brought Noriega to trial. Not guilty verdicts or a hung jury would have been deeply embarrassing to the White House.

Rubino, declaring that he is “bitter” about the verdict, called the trial “a political case, not a drug case.” He said he would appeal the verdict as far as the Supreme Court, charging government misconduct, including the invasion.

“A new page has been written in American history,” Rubino said. “The U.S. government, in its role as world policeman, saw fit to invade a country and seize its leader. The jury has condoned that action and sent a message to the rest of the world’s leaders that you too may soon be in our courthouse.”

Calling Noriega’s prosecution “a modern-day version of the Crusades,” Rubino said that “the United States is trampling across the entire world imposing its will unless they (foreign leaders) are willing to kneel once a day and face Washington and give praise to George Bush.”

He said Noriega had no personal reaction, although his family was “horribly dejected about the verdict.”

Authorities said Noriega, after his sentencing, still must face another federal indictment in Tampa on charges of massive marijuana smuggling into the United States. In addition, the government of Panama hopes to try him on charges that he ordered the murder of a political opponent in 1985 and committed acts of malfeasance in office.

James McAdams, acting U.S. attorney in Miami, said he has no idea when or if Noriega will be sent to Panama to face such charges. Officials expect him to be sentenced to a heavy prison term in the United States.

Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, in a statement released in Washington, called the verdict a “historic accomplishment and a great victory for the rule of law and for the American people.”

Lead prosecutor Michael P. Sullivan attributed the outcome to “so much effort by so many prosecutors, agents and staff,” and said: “It was worth it all.”

Panamanians rejoiced after learning that their former dictator had been convicted.

“This act of justice closes a disgraceful chapter of Panamanian history,” President Guillermo Endara said in Panama City.

“It would have only been just to find him guilty and this is what they did . . . . Panamanians . . . knew perfectly well that we were witnessing the first narco-military dictatorship in history.”

The trial began Sept. 5 and lasted seven months--including a seven-week recess after Christmas while the judge recuperated from emergency heart surgery--and testimony filled 17,000 pages.

The government put 51 witnesses on the stand to prove its case, including at least 18 confessed or convicted drug offenders, some of whom gave firsthand accounts of payoffs to Noriega by Colombian drug lords.

The jury subsequently convicted Noriega of all charges that he accepted cash payments for protecting cocaine shipments through Panama from 1981 through 1986. Key testimony came from the government’s star witness, Floyd Carlton-Caceres, the former confidant and personal pilot whom Noriega had sent as his emissary to the Medellin cartel.

Carlton-Caceres and other witnesses said cash was delivered to Noriega at his home and in his office. Prosecutors showed that Noriega had laundered at least $23 million through branches of the scandal-plagued Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

The only two charges rejected by the jury involved two lesser counts that Noriega had protected three associates on a cocaine-bearing voyage aboard a yacht named the Krill.

Jury foreman Lester Spencer, an insurance company field representative, and other jurors reached at their hotel after the trial declined to offer insights into their reasons for the verdicts.

“As you know, it’s been a long trial,” Spencer said. “This decision was difficult and it was a decision that was heavily debated.”

Another juror, James Hogan, reading from a statement in which he said other jurors concurred, said: “The verdict speaks for itself. We examined all the evidence and we are all looking forward to returning to our normal lives.”

The jury had told the judge Wednesday that it was deadlocked after three days of deliberations, but he directed them to continue their efforts. Jurors refused to say Thursday what had broken the deadlock.

In contrast to the number of prosecution witnesses, Rubino, a little-known Miami drug lawyer whom Noriega personally hired, elicited testimony from 19 witnesses over a period of six weeks.

He said part of his strategy was foiled by several rulings from Hoeveler that would be part of his appeal.

He had intended, for example, to tell jurors about the assistance Noriega gave the Ronald Reagan Administration in helping U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels combat the leftist Sandinista government, but Hoeveler refused to permit such testimony, declaring it irrelevant to the drug charges.

Rubino also complained Thursday that Hoeveler prevented him from presenting extensive evidence about Noriega’s past connections with the CIA.

Those avenues closed to him, Rubino based his defense largely on evidence that Noriega had been helpful during the 1980s to Panama-based agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in tracking down drug offenders and money launderers. But federal prosecutors contended that the Panamanian strongman gave only limited assistance, concealing his own criminal activities.

Rubino sharply attacked the credibility of convicted felons used by the government, calling them “scumbags” and “disgusting.” But DEA chief Robert C. Bonner said in Washington after the verdict:

“To get to the highest levels in the drug world, it is necessary to strike deals with some people who are not necessarily angels.”

Bonner, himself a former prosecutor and federal judge in Los Angeles, repeated an old prosecutor’s phrase: “Swans do not swim in sewers.”

The case, dubbed Operation Just Cause by the government, began when Noriega was indicted on Feb. 4, 1988, along with 15 other people, including the head of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Escobar. At the time, Noriega was still in power in Panama and sneered at U.S. demands that he step down.

On Dec. 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama with 25,000 troops. U.S. forces tracked Noriega to a Vatican mission in Panama City, surrounded it and blasted him with rock music until he surrendered.

The fighting killed 23 U.S. servicemen, at least 200 Panamanian civilians and an estimated 300 Panamanian soldiers.

Jackson is a Times staff writer and Clary is a special correspondent.

The Case Against Noriega

Manuel A. Noriega was named in all but one of the 12 counts charged in the February, 1988, indictment against the deposed Panamanian leader and 15 others. One count was dropped at the beginning of the trial. Count I: (GUILTY) A catch-all racketeering conspiracy count charging that Noriega helped the Medellin cartel set up operations in Panama, hid its leaders after the assassination of Colombia’s justice minister in 1984, took a $4-million bribe to authorize creation of a cocaine lab in Panama, laundered drug profits and generally supported efforts to import cocaine into the United States. Maximum sentence 20 years.

Count II: (GUILTY) Actual racketeering charge incorporating the actions in Count I. Maximum 20 years.

Count III: (GUILTY) Conspiracy with drug pilot Floyd Carlton to import cocaine into the United States between October, 1981, and January, 1984. Noriega allegedly received a payoff from Carlton. Maximum 15 years.

Count IV: (GUILTY) Distribution of 400 kilograms of cocaine flown by Carlton from Colombia to Panama in May, 1983, also with a payoff. (A kilogram is 2.2 pounds.) Maximum 15 years.

Count V: (GUILTY) Distribution of 400 kilograms of cocaine flown by Carlton in January, 1984, again with a payoff. Maximum 15 years.

Count VI: (GUILTY) Aiding Medellin cartel leaders in obtaining chemicals to manufacture “multi-ton quantities of cocaine” in the Colombian drug lab at Tranquilandia between September, 1983, and March, 1984. Maximum 15 years.

Count VII: (GUILTY) Conspiracy to manufacture cocaine in the Darien drug lab in Panama, as well as distributing and importing it to Florida on Ricardo Bilonick’s INAIR cargo line during May and the summer of 1984. Maximum 15 years.

Count VIII: (NOT GUILTY) Conspiracy to import 322 kilograms of cocaine aboard the yacht Krill between November, 1985, and March, 1986. The U.S.-bound cocaine was confiscated in Colombia after Noriega allegedly approved trading M-16 automatic rifles for the drugs. (Two co-defendants were convicted in a separate trial on this count.)

Count IX: (NOT GUILTY) Distribution of the cocaine listed in the previous count.

Count X: (GUILTY) Causing travel in furtherance of the conspiracy; the flight of two drug pilots who carried $800,000 in drug proceeds from Ft. Lauderdale to Panama. Maximum five years.