Kerry, the BCCI scandal, the Swiftboat liars and other overlapping

But all of BCCI's previous controversies have been dwarfed by the issue of drug money.

One former BCCI customer who was allegedly involved in the drug trade is Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator. In February 1988 Noriega was indicted in Miami and Tampa on federal drug changes. Around the time of the indictments, two convicted traffickers testified at Senate hearings that they'd dealt with Noriega--and with BCCI--in Panama. One of the traffickers, Leigh Bruce Ritch, testified that he'd been referred to BCCI by Cesar Rodriguez, one of Noriega's closest associates. The traffickers' testimony was buttressed by Jose Blandon, a former Panamanian diplomat. BCCI, according to Blandon, had been used for money laundering by both Rodriguez and Enrique Pretelt, another associate of Noriega's, who at the time was under indictment in the United States on drug charges.

In the wake of the Noriega hearings, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, chaired by John Kerry of Massachusetts, launched a secret inquiry into BCCI. On September 30, 1988, the Kerry committee deposed Amjad Awan, BCCI's country manager for Panama from 1981 to 1984. Awan, who'd acted as Noriega's personal banker, said that the dictator had channeled millions of dollars through his BCCI account; most of the deposits had been in cash. Noriega had been so pleased with the service he'd received, according to Awan, that he'd made a personal appeal to Abedi not to transfer Awan from Panama. Abedi had gone ahead with the transfer anyway, but Awan had assured Noriega that "I would be available to him whenever he needed me."

Kerry's subcommittee wasn't the only unit of the U.S. government that was taking a close look at BCCI. At the same time that Awan was testifying, he and several of his BCCI colleagues were the targets of an undercover investigation of money laundering that had been launched in 1986 by the U.S. Customs Service. A customs agent posing as a money launderer had channeled millions of dollars in cocaine money through BCCI. Awan was one of several BCCI officers who'd allegedly been eager to help out.