INDICTMENTS DEPICT NORIEGA AS DRUG-TRAFFICKING KINGPIN

Miami and Tampa, Fla., Thursday and made public yesterday, provoked

sharp reactions yesterday in Panama and in Congress.

Noriega, who is accused of violating U.S. racketeering and drug laws,

was charged for providing protection and other government services in

Panama to international drug traffickers who shipped cocaine and

marijuana to the United States through Panama. He also allowed large

sums of illicit profits from U.S. drug sales to be laundered through

Panamanian banks, the indictments said.

But some administration critics in Congress and elsewhere declared

that the indictments suggest that until recently the administration

either covered up or overlooked allegations against Noriega.

Administration officials strongly denied these claims. And the

Panamanian Embassy in Washington, in a strongly worded statement

released yesterday, denounced the indictments and accused the Reagan

administration of engaging in a "systematic campaign" to destabilize the

Panamanian government. The embassy said "it is dangerous in the extreme

to challenge" Panama's patience and could "engender unforeseen

reactions" in the country, site of the strategic Panama Canal.

The indictments come at a time when the Reagan administration is

pushing for Noriega, Panama's military commander and de facto ruler, to

resign and permit civilian democracy to take hold in Panama.

Administration officials insist the indictments are not related to

U.S. efforts to oust Noriega. Officials said the criminal investigations

of Noriega hardened within recent months because for the first time

ever, U.S. law enforcement officials obtained evidence they viewed as

credible.

A high-ranking administration official said yesterday that "what

really happened here is that the legal process ran its course. We

monitored the legal proceedings, but we didn't try to influence them."

Until recently, Noriega, 51, has been viewed by the Reagan

administration as an important ally in Latin America and had strong

backing from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon, according

to current and former U.S. officials.

Administration officials said the abandonment of suppport for Noriega

was largely prompted by violent, anti-Noriega riots in Panama last

summer, the growth of internal opposition to him and the continued

deterioration of Panama's economy.

The Miami indictment, which alleges that Noriega was the key figure

in a broad criminal conspiracy, charged that the specific scheme

described in the indictment began in the fall of 1981 and continued

through March 1986.

In a statement yesterday, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman

of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, said that

"the American people have been victimized by a full-blown cover-up of

the facts on Noriega . . . . {The indictment} could have been done years

ago.

"Apparently before," Rangel said, "Noriega was a useful source of

intelligence on Latin America. Now the administration may believe he has

outlived his usefulness."

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a Noriega critic, said in a statement that

he has warned of Noriega's drug activities for a decade but that some

U.S. officials have "supported Noriega for too long."

Deputy State Department press aide Phyllis Oakley said yesterday that

the Noriega indictment is aimed at individuals and is not an attack on

the Panamanian government.

Miami U.S. Attorney Leon Kellner said yesterday that the indictments

"make it clear that no one is above our laws. General Noriega controls

Panama . . . . he utilized his position to sell the country of Panama to

traffickers. He has control of law enforcement, of customs {and} of

immigration."

Chances of Noriega coming to trial in the United States are slim

because the Panamanian constitution bars extradition of its citizens.

In Tampa, Noriega was indicted on three felony counts and charged

with assisting a U.S.-based marijuana-smuggling operation in return for

receiving about $1 million in payoffs. Noriega and an associate, Enrique

Pretelt, a Panamanian businessman who was also charged, were accused of

assisting an operation led in part by Steven Michael Kalish, a convicted

drug smuggler cooperating with the probe.

The Miami indictment is a more detailed and broader case. Noriega is

named with 15 others in a 12-count, 30-page indictment that accuses him

and others of participating in a criminal enterprise in violation of

U.S. racketeering and drug laws.

The charges in the Miami case carry a maximum 145 years in prison and

$1.1 million dollars in fines, if Noriega were ever tried and convicted.

The Miami indictment alleges that beginning in October 1982, Noriega

offered to provide government protection and other services to the

leaders of the notorious "Medellin cartel," a Colombian drug ring

investigators say is responsible for most of the cocaine smuggled into

the United States.

The cartel is alleged to have paid Noriega more than $5 million in

bribes.

In return, the indictment said, Noriega allowed the ring to use

Panamanian airstrips to fly cocaine to the United States, sold the group

chemicals used to manufacture cocaine that had been seized by the

Panamanian military and provided information on U.S. attempts to

investigate the operation.

For example, the indictment said, Noriega in 1983 passed word to the

cartel to delay a cocaine shipment passing through Panama to the United

States because U.S. military exercises were under way in Panama at the

time.

In 1984, when the Colombian government began a crackdown on the

Medellin cartel, Noriega let leaders of the group take refuge in Panama

and run their operation from there, the indictment alleged. That same

year, the indictment said, Noriega also let the cartel briefly set up a

cocaine manufacturing plant in Panama near the Colombian border.

Noriega has repeatedly denied any role in drug trafficking and has

said the indictments are part of a campaign by conservatives such as

Helms to discredit him and subvert the Panama Canal treaties. The 1977

treaties transfer control over the canal from the United States to

Panama in the year 2000.

Officials have said that Noriega, who was chief of military

intelligence before becoming the military commander in August 1983, for

years has provided intelligence to both the CIA and Cuba. The CIA,

particularly under the late director, William J. Casey, considered

Noriega to be an important asset, officials said.

One former top military official said Noriega also served as a key

back-channel intermediary between several U.S. administrations and Cuban

leader Fidel Castro. The Miami indictment alleges that Castro mediated a

dispute between Noriega and the Medellin cartel over drug operations in

Panama.

Norman Bailey, an economic specialist who was employed at the

National Security Council in 1981-83, said both the Defense Department

and the CIA strongly resisted efforts to withdraw U.S. diplomatic

support from Noriega. Bailey said that as a participant in an NSC review

of drug-money laundering, he saw "incontrovertible" intelligence reports

linking Noriega to drug trafficking.

Bailey said that the information may not have held up in a court

case, but he and others tried to use it to encourage a change in the

U.S. policy on Noriega. "We ran up against a stone wall" at the Defense

Department and the CIA, which felt "what we get from him is too valuable

to jeopardize," Bailey said.Staff writer Lou Cannon contributed to this

report.