Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Noriega Anti-Drug Claims Disputed

A key defense witness disputed contentions by defense counsel that Manuel A. Noriega had given valuable cooperation to U.S. drug enforcement officials. John C. Lawn, former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told Noriega’s jury in Miami the cooperation was more cosmetic than real. Earlier, attorney Jon A. May had said that he would show Noriega’s cooperation with U.S. authorities had been “unprecedented among the leaders of Central and South American nations.” To help support the point, he had called Lawn to testify. Lawn headed the DEA from 1985 to 1990 in the waning years of the Ronald Reagan Administration and the early years of the Bush Administration.