12. Operation Just Cause and the arrest of Manuel Noriega
In 1971 the DEA attempted to indict Manuel Noriega of Panama, only to the thwarted by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA had allowed Noriega to conduct his drug trade activities for years because of his support of the Contras in Nicaragua. The CIA, under its director at the time, George H. W. Bush, funded Noriega and looked the other way as the Panamanian dictator shipped illegal drugs to markets which included the United States. In 1986 a CIA pilot and former Marine named Eugene Hasenfus was shot down in Nicaragua during a flight in which he had been delivering weapons covertly for the CIA to the Contras. Ronald Reagan denied that Hasenfus had any connection with the United States government, but papers discovered in the wreckage of the aircraft he had been flying revealed otherwise, including the links between the CIA and Noriega.
With Noriega then a liability to the American government, and an embarrassment to both Reagan and his vice-president, the same George Bush, the DEA was encouraged to indict Noriega, and with the indictment in hand the United States sent 25,000 troops to Panama to secure his arrest and overthrow his government. Hasenfus was indicted by the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, convicted, imprisoned, and pardoned in December. Noriega was tried in Miami for drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, convicted, and sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. During his trial evidence reflecting his relationship with the CIA and George Bush was not allowed to be presented. Noriega was later extradited for trial in France, again convicted, and returned to the United States to serve his sentence.