Noriega Associates Buttress One Another’s Testimony on Cash Payoffs by Drug Lords : Trial: U.S. is using accomplices to carefully craft its case. But relying on evidence of convicted ex-aides of defendant is considered a risky tactic.

The grim-faced man in the open-collar khaki shirt had just testified about delivering a package of “drug money” to former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega.

Although the witness--Noriega’s former military aide, Lt. Col. Luis del Cid--had insisted that there was money in the package, defense attorney Frank Rubino got him to admit he could not be sure what was inside because he had not opened it.

It seemed Rubino had scored a major point with the jury trying Noriega on racketeering and drug-trafficking charges. But the government’s next witness, Floyd Carlton-Caceres, once Noriega’s personal pilot, said it was he who had prepared the shoebox-sized package for Del Cid and that it contained a $100,000 payoff from Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel.

The hand-in-glove testimony of Del Cid and Carlton-Caceres was typical of the prosecution’s case against Noriega, who was toppled when the United States invaded Panama two years ago.

So far, at least, the government appears to be carefully constructing a case whose parts fit snugly together. There has been little opportunity for defense attorneys to penetrate that close fit.

Rubino has had only limited success in attacking prosecution witnesses. Instead, he has sought to exploit the government’s principal weakness--that its case is built largely on the testimony of convicted accomplices. A dozen such witnesses have corroborated one anothers’ stories that the general was on the take.

The use of accomplices as witnesses--even if, as in this case, they have confessed their own actions--is always risky, in the opinion of some legal authorities.

Richard Ben-Veniste, a former associate Watergate prosecutor who now is a Washington attorney, said that use of such witnesses is “close to the rule” in drug cases such as the Noriega prosecution, but he warned that “there’s a great revulsion (on the part of) juries to utilizing witnesses whose crimes rival those of the defendant.” Ben-Veniste said that as a result, the government often finds itself “making deals with people who have committed more serious crimes than the guy on trial.”

Del Cid, a confessed bag man and co-conspirator, told the jury that he and the defendant had known each other for 27 years.

Del Cid said that Noriega twice sent him to Carlton-Caceres, an intermediary with the cartel, to pick up bulky packages that Noriega put in an office safe.

Carlton-Caceres followed Del Cid on the witness stand. He said that payoffs to Noriega were proposed by cartel leaders, who wanted to use Panama as a way-station for U.S.-bound shipments of cocaine. Both Carlton-Caceres and Del Cid have pleaded guilty to drug charges and are cooperating in the hope of gaining leniency.

Carlton-Caceres testified that Noriega demanded a personal payment of at least $100,000 for every planeload of Colombian cocaine that passed through Panama, that he said it would be “crazy” to take less. Later, Noriega upped his price to $150,000, Carlton-Caceres said. He testified that he delivered to Noriega aides in 1982 and 1983 a total of $600,000 in cash payoffs.

“Are you bringing me a bomb?” Del Cid asked him at one point. Carlton-Caceres said he replied: “Well, pray to God it doesn’t burst in your hands.”

While Carlton-Caceres and Del Cid have given specific evidence that Noriega took bribes, two other witnesses have told of the general’s personal ties to the notorious cartel. As with the other witnesses, their hands are not clean.

Roberto Striedinger, a convicted drug pilot, gave testimony placing Noriega in the same room with cartel leaders in Medellin, Colombia, in 1983. When he went to the home of drug trafficker Jorge Ochoa to receive instructions for a flight to Panama, Striedinger said, he found a relaxed Noriega meeting with cartel leaders in a jovial atmosphere.

Under cross-examination, Striedinger conceded that he had heard only snippets of conversation and never saw or heard Noriega do anything illegal. The next witness, convicted Colombian drug dealer Gabriel Taboada, added some damaging details.

Taboada, who is also cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of leniency, said that he attended the entire meeting. He said that Noriega smiled broadly as he accepted a briefcase from Ochoa containing $500,000 in cash. When asked how he knew the amount, Taboada said that he saw many stacks of $100 bills inside the briefcase, and he quoted Ochoa as saying: “Manny, here’s the 500.”

Other government witnesses have furnished additional evidence against Noriega, who has sat stoically in his military uniform, listening to a Spanish translation through earphones.

Enrique Pereira, a onetime bodyguard of the late Cesar Rodriguez and an associate of Noriega, told the jury he made two deliveries of cash-filled briefcases, one to Noriega’s home and one to his office. Pereira said that, on other occasions, he and Rodriguez deposited more than $1.7 million for Noriega at the Panama City branch of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International. They got deposit slips from Amjad Awan, Noriega’s personal banker, Pereira said. Awan is expected to testify later.

Jurors have gotten a picture of Panama City awash in drug money as suitcases of cash were flown back to Panama from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, where the Colombian traffickers assembled their U.S. profits. Eric Guerra, a former financier for the cartel, told of unloading $10 million to $15 million a week from planes at the Panama City airport and said that men from Noriega’s military intelligence unit would courteously help him transport the cash in armored cars.

The government began presenting its case seven weeks ago. It probably will take at least three more weeks because the prosecutors, Michael P. Sullivan and Myles Malman, insist on backing up every major witness with two or three others who offer corroboration or supply added details.

Defense attorney Rubino has sought to paint government witnesses as felons who might say anything to shorten their own sentences. He has also shown that the government has been extraordinarily generous with some of them.

The government allowed Carlton-Caceres, for example, to escape certain civil tax liabilities on his narcotics earnings and to keep a ranch he owns in Panama. And it has spent more than $211,000 to support the former Noriega pilot, his family and a domestic servant in the witness protection program.

And Rubino demonstrated that the government allowed Striedinger to keep $500,000 after it confiscated his $3-million home so that he could pay the attorney negotiating his plea agreement. Also, it let him keep an airplane, a Mercedes-Benz, two trucks and a gun collection--all of which were sold, with the proceeds going to his family.

Rubino has hinted that part of Noriega’s defense, which will start next month when the government concludes its case, will involve evidence that Noriega assisted U.S. intelligence officials, that he filed reports on Latin American drug deals and that he conferred with former White House aide Oliver L. North on supporting the U.S.-backed rebel forces in Nicaragua.

U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler has signaled, however, that he will allow no evidence he deems irrelevant to the criminal charges against Noriega.

Both sides are painfully aware that, even if Noriega is convicted, he could walk away. Some legal authorities believe he may have a good chance of getting a conviction reversed on appeal by citing constitutional issues--such as whether he received a fair trial or whether it was legal for U.S. authorities to seize him in another country.