A big win for Washington–but was it based on a dirty deal? The Justice Department is now scrambling to answer charges that, in its zeal to get Noriega, the U.S. government made a bargain with the Call drug cartel. Noriega’s lawyers claim the cartel paid Bilonick $1.2 million to testify against Noriega; in return, the Feds agreed to get the prison sentence of a top cartel leader reduced. The Department of Justice is denying any wrongdoing, but NEWSWEEK has seen secret documents and letters between a cartel lawyer and a federal prosecutor that appear to support Noriega’s claims.
Bilonick denies knowing anything about a cartel bribe. His lawyer claims he testified because the government gave him a good deal: a short sentence for drug smuggling and permission to keep more than a million dollars in drug profits. He was out in three years. Today he lives the good life,shuttling between Panama and Miami Beach.
The real story behind Bilonick’s testimony may not be so simple. It begins with a Call cartel grudge against Noriega, who was tight with the rival Medellin cartel. In 1985 Noriega shut down the bank that reputedly laundered the Call mob’s profits. Six years later, with Noriega awaiting trial, Cali saw its chance to get even. A cartel lawyer offered Noriega’s prosecutors a deal: if the Feds would cut the prison sentence of Cali trafficker Luis (Lucho) Santacruz Echeverri (half-brother of a Cali boss), the cartel would produce a witness to nail Noriega. Without asking too many questions, the Feds agreed–and Lucho’s sentence was cut by nine years. All sides understood the need for secrecy. “Remember, the appearance will be that you have made a deal with the Cali cartel to secure the cooperation and specific testimony of a witness against the Medellin cartel,” wrote Cali lawyer Joel Rosenthal in a July 24, 1991, letter to prosecutor Myles Malman.
How did the cartel persuade Bilonick to talk? Noriega’s lawyers say the cartel offered Bilonick the classic mob choice: silver or lead. The cartel would pay Bilonick $1.2 million to testify – or they’d come after his family. The Justice Department says that no one suggested a bribe at the time. But recently, officials told NEWSWEEK, a new Cali inform- ant started talking, and among his stories was the alleged bribe to Bilonick, Stunned federal prosecutors summoned Bilonick for questioning. His lawyer now concedes that the cartel gave his client “a comfort zone,” promising to protect his family. “You’ve seen ‘The Godfather,’ you know what I’m talking about,” he told NEWSWEEK.
Noriega’s lawyers will try to use the new evidence to get his conviction thrown out. The ground: that by not telling his lawyers that the witness against him had been bribed, prosecutors infringed on Noriega’s constitutional rights. “This, it is so repugnant. It is dirty,” Noriega told NEWSWEEK from a federal prison in Miami (where he still wears his brown Panamanian Defense Forces uniform for visitors). The court will likely uphold Noriega’s conviction. Still, Justice may have a hard time explaining who authorized this deal, since the ease was being monitored so closely by Washington. In any case, the ex-federal prosecutor who originally put away the Cali’s Lucho Santacruz did not hesitate to offer his analysis: “To any professional law-enforcement person,” said Toby Vick, “this deal stinks.”
