http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/26/us/drug-ring-gave-up-to-10-million-to-contras-noriega-jury-is-told.html

November 26, 1991

Drug Ring Gave Up to $10 Million To Contras, Noriega Jury Is Told

By LARRY ROHTER

The Medellin cartel made a "contribution" of as much as $10 million to rebels seeking the overthrow of the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua, a founding member of the Colombian cocaine trafficking organization testified here today.

The Colombian, Carlos Lehder Rivas, undergoing a second day of cross-examination in the trial of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former leader of Panama, also said the cartel had used Costa Rica, where the Nicaraguan rebels maintained supply bases, as a transshipment point for some of the cocaine it smuggled to the United States. Mr. Lehder was head of the cartel's transportation operations until he was arrested by the Colombian authorities and handed over to the United States early in 1987.

Mr. Lehder made the statements reluctantly, under intense questioning by Frank A. Rubino, chief counsel for General Noriega, and over protests by the Federal prosecutor, Guy Lewis, who repeatedly sought to have the issue ruled to be irrelevant. A former contra leader later dismissed Mr. Lehder's assertions as a "preposterous lie."

Pact With Prosecutors

Mr. Lehder, who was sentenced to life without parole plus 135 years in prison after his conviction on cocaine trafficking charges in 1988, agreed in August to testify against General Noriega in hope of receiving a reduced sentence and transfer from the maximum security wing of the Federal penitentiary at Marion, Ill.

"To the best of my recollection, there was some contribution to the contra anti-Communist movement," Mr. Lehder said in response to Mr. Rubino's queries about ties between the drug cartel and the Nicaraguan rebels, who were armed and advised by the Reagan Administration. Asked how much money had been given, he tried to evade the question but finally replied, "It could have been around $10 million."

"I catalogued this as a preposterous lie," Adolfo Calero, the political head of the contras during the 1980's, said this evening in a telephone interview from his home here. "We submitted all our accounts to the independent counsel and Congress in 1987, so this is just outrageous and ridiculous."

Mr. Rubino also asked if the payment to the contras was made in return for the right to use the rebels' supply bases in Costa Rica for drug flights. In particular, he wanted to know about any arrangement to use airstrips owned by John Hull, an American resident of Costa Rica who fled that country in 1989 after being arrested on drug and weapons smuggling charges and released on bail.

Mr. Hull has admitted that he allowed the contras to use land he owned in northern Costa Rica as bases to supply their forces with weapons and evacuate their wounded. He has also acknowledged receiving monthly payments from the Central Intelligence Agency for providing "security" to the contras, but has denied any involvement in drug trafficking.

At first, Mr. Lehder replied to Mr. Rubino that shipments "could have been, yes," routed through airstrips on Mr. Hull's ranch. But he later dismissed that notion as "secondhand information and speculation," and said he had "no recollection" himself of any drug shipments made with Mr. Hull's assistance. At another point, he said the cartel used Costa Rica "in a minor way."

Mr. Rubino did not ask how much cocaine was shipped through Costa Rica, which contra officials accepted money from the cartel and precisely when the payments were made. It was not immediately clear whether he had decided on his own not to ask these and related questions or whether he had been forbidden to do so by Judge William M. Hoeveler at some point during several bench conferences.

Many of Mr. Rubino's questions were drawn from statements Mr. Lehder made in March 1990 in taped interviews with Morgan Strong, a contributing editor to Playboy magazine. Mr. Strong said this afternoon that he had been "dealing with Rubino, and when he discovered I had done the interviews," which were never published, Mr. Rubino successfully sought a subpoena for a transcript.

Mr. Strong said Mr. Lehder was "very reticent in dealing with" accusations that President Fidel Castro of Cuba and the Nicaraguan Government were involved with the Medellin cartel in shipping cocaine to the United States, accusations that Mr. Lehder made on the witness stand last week. "But on the other hand, he was perfectly willing to deal with events embarrassing to the American Government," Mr. Strong added.

Mr. Strong's interview with Mr. Lehder has not been offered as evidence and is therefore not a part of the public record of the trial.