Manuel Noriega: The Hidden Witness Deal and the Drug Conviction That Stood
From Kingpins & Sicarios: Crime Documentary · 12:25
Show by Marlon Calder
Manuel Noriega, commander of Panama's Defense Forces, was convicted by a Miami jury in 1992 on eight drug counts and sentenced to forty years. The appeal that followed found the government had concealed a deal with one of its witnesses - and still let the verdict stand.The episode follows the record: the Medellin cartel's payments into secret BCCI accounts, the more than twenty-three million dollars traced to Noriega, and the Rule 35 deal that cut a Cali cartel associate's sentence in exchange for delivering witness Ricardo Bilonick. It covers the 1995 claim that the Cali cartel paid Bilonick 1.25 million dollars to testify, Judge Hoeveler's refusal of a new trial, and the Eleventh Circuit's 1997 ruling that the concealment was impeachment material, not grounds to overturn. It closes with the reduction to thirty years, the 2010 transfer to France and the seven-year money-laundering sentence there, the return to Panama, and his death in 2017.Kingpins & Sicarios - the bosses, the killers, and the networks between them.Watch the full documentaries and clips on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe2hl7-Lqg3TWCOxp2dThQQSubscribe and follow so you never miss a new case.This program is an educational documentary based on court records, official filings and published reporting. Charges and indictments are allegations unless a court has found otherwise. Nothing here praises or promotes any criminal organization or gives instructions for any crime.Narration is AI-generated. Any scenes shown in the video version are dramatizations created for storytelling.
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