American Notes Drugs

Carlos Lehder Rivas, one of the founders of the Medellin drug cartel, was % supposed to be the U.S. government's star witness in the Miami trial of Panama's General Manuel Noriega, who is charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. But the prosecution's plans were turned upside down last week when Lehder, 42, claimed that the cartel gave $10 million to the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras.

Pasty-faced after four years and 10 months in federal prison, where he is serving a life sentence plus 135 years for drug trafficking, Lehder conceded that he had only hearsay knowledge of the payment. Responding to the accusation, former contra leaders denied receiving Medellin money and rejected any suggestion of involvement in guns-for-drugs deals with the cartel.

Even more startling was Lehder's claim that in 1982, two U.S. officials offered him a "green light" to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., provided that he let them use Norman Cay, a Bahamian island he owned, to move guns to the contras. U.S. sources deny that such an offer was made but confirm that Lehder approached an American consular official and an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and tried to sell them the island for use as a drug-interdiction post.

Lehder's bizarre testimony was a serious setback for the prosecution's case: by denying his specific charges, the U.S. undermined his credibility as an anti-Noriega witness.