Wanted Dead or Alive: Today in Manhunting History -- December 21, 1989: Hunting Noriega

"This operation is . . . pretty well wrapped up,” President George H. W. Bush said on December 21, 1989, but “I won’t be satisfied until we see [Noriega] come to justice.” A $1 million bounty for information leading to Noriega’s capture was announced, although one senior officer cautioned: “We don’t want to make him a fugitive bandit being hunted by marines. He’s not Pancho Villa, he’s John Dillinger.”

The avenues of escape were slammed shut throughout Panama by various special operations forces. Charlie Company, 7th SFG was assigned the mission of shutting down Radio Nacional. Thirty-six Green Berets deployed in three helicopters, and at 7PM the broadcaster announced “The invader’s helicopter is on top of the building.” Within a few minutes music replaced the steady stream of pro-Noriega propaganda that had filled the airwaves throughout the day.

As SEALs watched Panama’s ports and 7th Group’s Green Berets combed the streets of the capital, primary responsibility for hunting Noriega was given to Delta Force, which during H-Hour had conducted an audaciously brilliant raid to rescue an American citizen from the notorious Modelo Prison. Noriega sightings flooded into the SOUTHCOM intelligence network, and analysts tried to separate truth from falsehood. In Colon, an old woman appeared at the front gate of the hotel being used as headquarters for the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, “pointing a crooked finger and raving that Noriega had a secret tunnel under the hotel that he had used for an escape route upon the 7th Infantry’s arrival.” Other locals corroborated this claim, but a search of the hotel’s basement quickly dismissed the notion of a secret tunnel. For intelligence that was deemed credible, Delta Force could go “from tip to takeoff” in 30 minutes, and between December 21-24 launched 42 raids on every known or suspected safe house where Noriega could hide.

Yet for all of Delta’s considerable skill, they could apparently never catch up to the elusive dictator. Often they thought they were getting close: at one seaside villa on the Pacific Ocean, U.S. forces found lit cigarettes and warm coffee cups; at other locations they found PDF soldiers. But no matter how rapidly they kicked down doors and poured in through windows, the operators would be told Noriega had either just left or was at another location. As this cycle repeated itself in the days after the invasion, raiding troops made a series of bizarre discoveries. At Noriega’s residence at Fort Amador, U.S. troops found pictures of Hitler, an extensive pornography collection, a “witches diary” chronicling visits by two voodoo priestesses from Brazil, and 50 kilograms of white powder initially believed to be cocaine, but later identified as flour for making tamales. At Noriega’s home at Altos del Golfo, Delta uncovered more stacks of hardcore pornography, $8 million in U.S. currency, and two religious altars, one of which was decorated with jars containing human internal organs.

But there still was no sign of Noriega.