'No evidence’ to link general, drug dealing

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 8

'No evidence’ to link general, drug dealing

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States Senate Intelligence Committee has said it has found no hard evidence linking the Panamanian leader, Omar Torrijos, to drug trafficking. But it said that, acting on a tip apparently ordered by the Nixon White House, he saved his brother from arrest in the United Statescontrolled Panama Canal Zone on charges of smuggling 70kg of heroin into the United States. The committee’s findings on the long-simmering narcotics allegations against General, Torrijos were presented to the Senate sitting in a rare secret session. The Justice Department on Tuesday made public a narcotics indictment issued against General Torrjos’s brother, Moises, by a New York grand jury in 1972. The indictment had remained secret until on Tuesday. The indictment contained three counts of conspiracy, possession and knowingly importing narcotics. The New York police put the black market value of heroin at about $5 million. The Senate, which broke off from the debate on treaties to hand the Panama Canal back to Panama by the year 2000 to examine the narcotics allegations, was told by the Intelligence Committee chairman (Senator Birch Bayh) that intelligence reports linking General Torrijos to drug trafficking were “largely second-hand and of varying reliability.” He said the committee’s conclusions were tentative and that the investigation was continuing. The committee report was issued to the Press while the Senate was meeting behind locked doors. The report said the in-

vestigation had turned up no conclusive evidence that, could be used in a court of law. Relating General Torrijos’s role in warning his brother, Moises, the report said that Mr. John Ingersoll, director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, told the Panamanian leader in June, 1972, that a New York grand jury had issued a sealed indictment against Moises.