Witness Says Noriega Aide Received $4-Million Payoff : Drugs: Businessman testifies that he was the go-between for Medellin cartel leaders. Panama’s ex-president also got $100,000, jury is told.

MIAMI —  A businessman testified Friday that he gave an aide to deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega $4 million from Colombian drug barons and handed over $100,000 more to former Panamanian President Nicholas Ardito Barletta.

Ricardo Tribaldos said he acted as an intermediary between Medellin cocaine cartel leaders Jorge and Fabio Ochoa in their dealings with Noriega aide Lt. Col. Julian Melo.

Prosecutors introduced a photo showing Tribaldos with Ardito Barletta and a suitcase at a fund-raising party during Ardito Barletta’s presidential campaign in 1983. The suitcase, Tribaldos testified, contained $100,000 for Ardito Barletta from Jorge Ochoa. Melo had set up the payment, he said.

Tribaldos said he later met with Fabio Ochoa in Cali, Colombia.

“They (the cartel leaders) said they wanted protection for all their business in Panama--they said they wanted the protection of the National Guard of Panama, including Gen. Noriega,” Tribaldos said.

A cartel contact later delivered wooden crates containing $4 million to the apartment of one of Tribaldos’ partners, Gabriel Mendes, Tribaldos said.

Melo left some of the money with Tribaldos and his partners for later payment to Noriega, but it was unclear from the testimony what happened to that money. Tribaldos spent at least $160,000 of it for an apartment. Several million dollars went to Ardito Barletta’s campaign, according to earlier testimony.

The cartel payoff was supposed to include protection for a cocaine lab being built in Panama, but troops raided the site in May, 1984, angering the drug barons. Then the Panamanian military began raiding the cartel’s chemical shipments.

In a stormy meeting with two cartel representatives, a frightened Melo insisted he had paid the money to Noriega, Tribaldos testified.

“I don’t understand what’s going on with Gen. Noriega,” the witness quoted Melo as saying. “He must be going crazy . . . let’s kill Gen. Noriega.”

Noriega later kicked Melo out of the military, blaming him for accepting the payoffs, according to prior testimony in the trial.

Earlier Friday, Rogerio Rodriguez, a partner of Tribaldos in a shipment of cocaine-refining chemicals through Panamanian customs, said Melo helped guide the shipment to Colombia.

Barrels of ether--some disguised with “fresh paint” labels--were loaded on Colombian ships in Panama in early 1984, said Rodriguez, a customs inspector who received immunity from federal prosecutors.

Rodriguez said one ship captain told him arrangements had been made with Colombian patrol boats to allow the illegal cargo to enter the country.

Melo told Rodriguez and his other partners that all the permits were approved by Noriega himself, and agents of the Panamanian narcotics department guarded the loading of the chemicals, Rodriguez said.

Noriega faces up to 140 years in prison if convicted on all 10 drug and racketeering counts against him. He surrendered to U.S. troops following the 1989 invasion of Panama.