TIMES ONLINE: Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama who was deposed by US troops, was extradited to France on money laundering charges after 20 years in US custody.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, signed the extradition order two years after the general completed a US jail sentence for drug racketeering. Noriega, 76, was due to arrive in Paris today from Miami, Florida.
He was arrested in 1990 after the US ended years of secret co-operation by invading Panama and toppling the dictatorship. He was taken to Miami where he was convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy.
While in custody he was convicted in absentia in France on charges of laundering cocaine profits through European banks. At the end of his sentence in the US he stayed in a Florida jail to fight extradition.
Noriega, whose pock-marked complexion earned him the name Pineapple Face, will go on trial in France where he has been found guilty of using drug money to buy three luxury apartments. >>> Nico Hines in Washington | Tuesday, April 27, 2010
