Biography
Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former military ruler of Panama, surrendered to United States forces on January 3, 1990 following the US invasion. He was subsequently convicted in Miami on eight drug-related counts; the Eleventh Circuit affirmed his convictions and rejected his immunity and capture challenges. His documented domestic confinement began on January 4, 1990 and ended with extradition to France on April 26, 2010. That transfer ended US custody, rather than giving him freedom.
Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former military ruler of Panama, surrendered to United States forces on January 3, 1990 following the US invasion. He was subsequently convicted in Miami on eight drug-related counts; the Eleventh Circuit affirmed his convictions and rejected his immunity and capture challenges. His documented domestic confinement began on January 4, 1990 and ended with extradition to France on April 26, 2010. That transfer ended US custody, rather than giving him freedom.
Source 1 ; Source 2 ; Source 3 ; Source 4 ; Source 5 ; Source 6.
The 1990 district opinion distinguishes the January 3 military surrender and subsequent DEA arrest from domestic prison admission. Contemporaneous reporting places him in Miami courthouse detention from January 4. The 1991 judicial record separately dates the later MCC Miami transfer to January 28; it is not a second original admission. The BOP record for register 38699-079 gives actual discharge on April 26, 2010, corroborated by the completed extradition report. The VOA account’s reference to a 1989 custody start conflicts with the judicial chronology and is not used. The January 3 capture occurred after the December 1989 invasion. His actual later detention is independently documented, so forty years is never treated as time served. Birth-year sources conflict and no birth date is supplied. The portrait is the individually identified US Marshals Service photograph reproduced by Wikimedia Commons; its uploader’s uncertain photograph date is not used as a custody date.
