this book would be better sub-titled "The True Story of an Unusual Indictment of a Foreign Ruler," considering it only devotes a handful of pages to the actual "manhunt" for Noriega. that being said, Harris tells a great story of the weird saga of Manuel Noriega, the cheap thug who was the de facto ruler of Panama for awhile.
Harris goes on in great detail about how the U.S. built its unprecedented case against Noriega by interviewing some of the key players in the indictment.
however, although Harris makes numerous allusions to the reluctance of several powerful agencies to endorse the case against Noriega (chiefly, the CIA and DEA), he never goes into much detail about Noriega's connection to these agencies or what role Noriega played in the Iran-Contra scandal, which i feel are probably the real stories here. i dont fault Harris for not having those answers, considering the sensitive nature of the questions, but this book begs the answers nonetheless.
i was also disappointed that Harris negelected to write at all about Noriega's trial, considering the exhaustive research he did into the indictment, but perhaps the trial is addressed in someone else's book.
despite its shortcoming, this is a very well researched book, and definitely worth the time if youre interested in U.S. policy toward drugs and/or Latin America.

I know several of the characters in Harris' book, and he has invented a lot of their colorful talk and dress. In just one example Raymond Takiff ("Roy" in the index!) was from West Philadelphia, Overbrook Park, just south of the Main Line, not South Philadelphia. Harris makes Takiff, a Villanova graduate and former history teacher who considered himself an intellectual, sound like a cheap South Philly hoodlum. Takiff was a snappy dresser, in the South Florida style (Silk, please, not Rayon!), and the scene with the shorts and brogans was a grotesque invention. Harris also misspells Takiff's daughter's name! Most details on the other lawyers involved are also highly imaginary. As an indication of the sloppy job Harris did, he misses some colorful items, too, such as Takiff maneuvering the judge in the trial of the 91 year old woman accused of cocaine possession into helping the defendant out of the witness stand!
No wonder a number of the characters in this book are not named, or personal background and color is missing. Since Ray Takiff is dead he couldn't defend himself but I'd guess that some legal threats were involved with many of those in this book, and the publishers took the names and/or details out when they were unable to verify all the "facts".
The large percentage of mistakes on items I have personal knowledge of are a likely indication that the error level in this book is pretty high. Not a trustworthy source of information.

In 1989 the United States sent American troops to arrest General Manuel Antonio Noreiga, Panama's highest military officer. Trying a foreign leader for events that took place in his own country as violations of U. S. law was previously unheard of in American history. Stopping the Medellin Cartel was a major step in slowing down the influx of illegal Cocaine and other drugs. Harris unravels the complicated story with wit and verve, very colorful language, marvelous humor, and a sense of excitement. Harris makes the FBI, DEA and CIA agents appear to be involved in a bumbling, amusing, tragedy. Oliver North was engaged in clandestine arms dealing and nobody seemed to know what anybody else was doing. Here is a true crime story on a grand scale with betrayal, murder, arms dealing and drug smuggling that reads like good fiction. Here are the explanations of the Reagan administration's dealings with the Sandinistas and Contras; names that were always in the news in association with cover-ups and destroyed evidence by government agencies, though the public didn't really know what was going on. Harris has done a superior job of investigative reporting to create an impressive chronicle of the events leading up to the invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Antonio Noreiga. He made history come alive and really gave me a much better understanding of the events that were in the news for so long, and the role and fate of each of the historical players in this drama of our time.