Prosecutor Calls Noriega ‘Corrupt Cop,’ Rests Case : Narcotics: The U.S. says the Panamanian only pretended to cooperate with anti-drug efforts. The defense summation is set for today.

MIAMI — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega violated U.S. laws by putting “tons and tons of a deadly white powder” on American streets, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday as Noriega’s racketeering and cocaine-smuggling trial neared an end.

In a four-hour closing argument, Assistant U.S. Atty. Myles Malman described the former strongman as “a corrupt, crooked and rotten cop” who protected U.S.-bound drug shipments from Colombia in exchange for “millions and millions of dollars in cash.”

Frank A. Rubino, Noriega’s attorney, was scheduled to present the defense’s closing statement today. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler said that the case may go the jury Thursday.

Capping more than three months of testimony from the government and nearly two months from the defense, Malman told jurors that Noriega was a “classic military dictator . . . who used his position of great power” to take part in a massive drug conspiracy. At the same time, the prosecutor said, Noriega sought to deceive U.S. drug enforcement authorities in Panama by posing as a cooperative foreign official.

“He sanitized and controlled information he gave to the Drug Enforcement Administration,” Malman said. “He might send a couple of gringos to the DEA now and then to keep them happy, or furnish a little information to the CIA.”

Some U.S. drug agents called by defense attorneys have testified that Noriega’s aides often gave them information on drug traffickers and financial data on drug-money launderers. They said that the dictator appeared to be cooperative.

Noriega, dressed in his khaki general’s uniform with stars on the shoulders, sat at the defense table Tuesday staring glumly at Malman. If convicted on all 10 felony charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 140 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines.

Malman acknowledged to jurors that the government’s case rested heavily on the testimony of confessed or convicted drug dealers and alleged co-conspirators who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in return for recommendations of leniency in their own cases.

“We make no apologies for this,” he said. “Plea bargaining is lawful and proper and a traditional law enforcement technique. You go up the ladder to get the top men.”

Malman said that jurors may note “some inconsistencies” as to the dates or quantities of drug shipments mentioned by government witnesses. He said such variances are normal “when people are recalling the details of events that go back as far as 10 years.”

“You must look at the whole picture,” he concluded. “And that is that Mr. Noriega was sharing in drug money by protecting cocaine shipments through Panama and members of the Medellin drug cartel themselves.”