With his real name unknown to the cartel, Seal was in the perfect position to avoid prosecution by becoming a government informant or so he thought. Yes. Barry Seal liked to use pay phones. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot . As Barry opened the driver's side door to get out of the car, the gunman rushed from behind the drop box and fired a .45 caliber Mac-10 machine gun, hitting Barry in the head and body several times. DEA Agent Ernest Jacobsen later said the technology they used was the most expensive cryptic radio communications we had ever seen at the time.. -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. The DEA refused to let Seal leave the country due to the danger he was in, so Seal arranged for his ex-brother-in-law William Bottoms to make the flight. [1] In this capacity, he worked for both the CIA and Pablo Escobar. The Nicaragua drug story first appeared in the Washington Times (7/17/84) and was immediately given big play by all the major papers, wire services and TV networks. WASHINGTON . -Daily Mail Online, The movie proposes that Barry Seal's first foray into smuggling drugs happened in 1980 after he was kidnapped while refueling his plane in Colombia. Their operation proved so successful that Seal was at one time considered the biggest drug smuggler in Louisiana state. Exclusive: Tom Cruise's portrayal of drug-smuggler-turned-government-informant Barry Seal is a fast-paced visit back to the Reagan era . [41], Seal was taken into federal custody in June 1985 and spent several months testifying in court. Seals career as a pilot for Trans World Airlines crashlanded in 1974 when he was caught trying to smuggle explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. [28], Seal returned to the Los Brasiles airfield in Nicaragua on June 25. According to Del Hahn's book Smuggler's End, Barry Seal was not chummy with the cartel bosses. It was likely the longest day of his entire life. Barry Seal "'Fat Man' key to mystery" By Michael Haddigan THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE June 26, 1988 Allegations of cocaine smuggling and international intrigue swirled about the Mena Airport and Seal for years. Barry emerges from the plane covered in cocaine. It alleges, explicitly and implicitly, that an aircraft operated by a CIA front company in 1984 used the airfield at Mena, Arkansas, as a stating point for weapons supply flights to the Contras in Nicaragua; on the return flights from Honduras, the aircraft allegedly carried illegal narcotics to Mena. Also, before the agreement was reached, the Louisiana task force investigation had been looking into Seal's involvement in smuggling thousands of kilograms of cocaine. Barry Seal's smuggling operation began in Louisiana, and like in the American Made movie, he sometimes pushed packed duffel bags full of drugs out of his plane and into the Atchafalaya basin, to be collected by associates on the ground. He soon told the task force about the contract, and Seal was informed that the cartel was offering $500,000 for his death. This leads to the CIA recruiting him to take reconnaissance photos in Central America. When asked who his source was, Jacoby implied that it was "an aide in the White House" and that Oliver North had the most motivation to release the information. Yet, some believe that Seal was working for the CIA in the 1980s to fly guns and money to Nicaraguan rebels, a detail that the movie embraces. [64] Citing testimony of DEA Administrator John C. Lawn, the report of the Kerry Committee released in December 1988 pinned the leak on North stating he "decided to play politics with the issue". In his research for the book, the only confirmed connection Hahn could make between the CIA and Barry Seal was in 1984, after Seal had started working as an informant for the DEA. Seal took a blurry snapshot which purported to show himself with a high-level Nicaraguan official named Federico Vaughn, and a Colombian drug czar unloading bags of cocaine at an airstrip in Nicaragua. Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. Two weeks after his argument with Vice President GHW Bush, Barry Seal was pumped full of bullets and murdered outside his Baton Rouge halfway house on Feb. 19, 1986. Mermelstein, who had told the DEA of the murder contract after his arrest in 1985, testified that Ochoa, Escobar, and Cardona had asked him to take the contract and provided him with money and weapons to do the job. The flight, in January 1985, was successful and led to arrests and convictions. The Fat Lady, over Nicaragua. [61], Seal was married three times. Exposure of Nicaraguan undercover operation, Criticism of U.S. failure to protect Seal, President's Commission on Organized Crime, "Barry Seal murder in Baton Rouge 25 years ago helped expose Iran-Contra debacle", "Louisiana governor denies parole for man who helped kill Barry Seal for Escobar's cartel", "Slain drug smuggler Barry Seal's daughter sues to halt movie on her father's life", "Family of murdered drug smuggler sue Universal over Tom Cruise film Mena", "North's name bandied about on news leak", "Special Reports - Interview - Drug Wars", "Informants murder puts head on authorities", "TV Reviews: 'Doublecrossed': Story of Drugs and Politics", "Who Killed Barry Seal? In 1981, he was making daily deposits of $50,000 into an account at a bank in the Bahamas. He spent years working for Pablo Escobar and the Medelln cartel, flying tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and earning millions of dollars. Hed work at the drop of a hat, and he didnt care, a fellow smuggler later recalled of Seal. [15] The investigation into Seal was part of a major undercover operation called Operation Screamer in which over 80 pilots were eventually indicted. It was in 1973, the year that followed the end of his second marriage that Seal got married to Deborah DuBois and they . On the morning of June 25, Seal, Camp and their mechanic, Peter Everson, landed . Operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) approaches Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) and tells him, "We need you to deliver stuff for us." "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. The movie's loose interpretation of the true story is echoed in the trailer when a voice-over by Tom Cruise as Barry Seal tells us that only "some of this sh*t really happened." He testified that Vlez was present when he was given the contract and that Vlez later asked Mermelstein to turn the contract over to him. There is no real-life Monty. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. The story included the photograph Seal had taken of Escobar handling the cocaine. Barry Seal started his career as a pilot for Trans World Airlines but he soon turned to the more profitable life of drug smuggling. New York, NY 10001. Using pilots like Barry Seal was a means to an end. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." In reality, there is no evidence that Seal was ever involved with the CIA. The state narcotics agents who were investigating Seal in Baton Rouge sued over their depiction in the series, but the lawsuit was dismissed. The truth behind the CIA/Mena Conspiracy!Notorious Louisiana drug smuggler Barry Seal made countless runs from Central America to the United States, flying thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana into the country and making millions of dollars. [37], In February, Seal also played a central role in an undercover operation against Norman Saunders, chief minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands, a former British colony south of the Bahamas. a secret camera in Seal's C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. But nine years after he was murdered in a hail of bullets by Medellin cartel hit men outside a Salvation Army shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he has come back to haunt the reputations of three American presidents. In October 1985 he returned to court over the first indictment in Big Screamer, for which he had originally been sentenced to ten years. [18] Jacobsen was impressed with Seal's connections, especially the ones with the Ochoa family, and on March 28, Seal signed a letter agreeing to serve as a DEA informant. On June 29, General Paul F. Gorman, US Military Commander Southern Command, made a speech stating the US had evidence that elements of the Nicaraguan government were involved in drug smuggling, though Gorman did not mention Seal or the undercover flights. CBS obtained pages from Col. Oliver Norths diary revealing that the former National Security Council aid communicated frequently with the CIA about the sting operation in the weeks before the photo was leaked to the press despite objections from the DEA. I never saw drugs, that's for sure." Fact-checking American Made revealed that Monty Schafer is a fictional character created to represent Barry Seal's contacts at the CIA. [31], The DEA plan was to keep Seal working with the cartel on other parts of the supply chain, such as moving cocaine base into Nicaragua from Colombia and inspecting smuggling airfields in Mexico and the U.S. Another shipment was also planned at this time, but under instructions from the DEA, Seal told Escobar his landing site was under DEA surveillance and unsafe for transport to avoid the need to seize a second load. Seal had six children; two from his first wife, one from a relationship he had in between marriages, and three more with Deborah.[62][63]. This led to photos of key Nicaraguan government officials . On 1st July, 1972, Barry Seal was arrested in New Orleans and accused of sending C4 explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. 'Barry Seal - Traficante Americano' estreia em Portugal esta quinta-feira, dia 31 de agosto. Yes. [53], In addition to the state charges against the killers, federal charges were filed against Fabio Ochoa, Pablo Escobar, and a third cartel member, Rafael Cardona, for conspiring to violate Seal's civil rights by murdering him.[54]. Before returning to Nicaragua, the DEA arranged for CIA technicians to . After being caught in Honduras with 40 kilograms of cocaine in 1979, Barry spent nine months in a Honduran jail. When the cartel caught wind of Seals betrayal, they sent three hitmen to gun him down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bringing a bloody end to his work as an informant. "Barry Seal was a friend of mine," Plumlee says. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 - February 19, . Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. Three of them, Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz, Miguel Vlez, and Bernardo Antonio Vsquez, were indicted on state charges for capital murder. Now thats excitement.. In an effort to reduce or altogether avoid his 10-year prison sentence, Seal first tried to make a deal with a U.S. attorney, volunteering to give up information on the Ochoa family, but the deal was rejected. Although Seals first foray into smuggling failed, by 1975, he had started trafficking marijuana between the U.S. and Central and South America. by Allie Gemmill. However, the U.S. needed a way to covertly get the funds and weapons to the rebels. A principio de los aos 80 comenz a estar al servicio del Cartel de Medelln para transportar la cocana y en 1984 le . [39] Seal attempted to push back against the investigation by appearing in a television news series broadcast by WBRZ in Baton Rouge in November 1984. The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair. "He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. And it was there, according to The Gentlemans Journal, that he was arrested by the DEA in 1984 with 462 pounds of Escobars cocaine on his plane. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. Nicaragua, where Seal flew a cocaine shipment in a C-123 outfitted with cameras to prove that Nicaragua's Sandinista government was involved with the drug . Additionally, the movie version of Seal quits his job with the airline to pursue a life of crime. The explosives were supposedly going to anti-Castro Cuban fighters. Through his cartel contacts in Miami, Seal arranged a meeting using the name Ellis McKenzie (the real name of another Seal associate). Vasquez was identified as the purchaser of the halfway house vehicle by the car agency salesman and paid for hotel rooms and rental cars using his name. He was assigned to the 20th Special Forces Group and graduated from the United States Army Airborne School selection and training. Lisa Seal Frigon, Barry's daughter from his first marriage, sued Universal, claiming that the studio should have purchased Barry's life rights from her, not his third wife Deborah who they paid $350,000. They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Barry Seal vol nuevamente a Nicaragua con una misin secreta de la CIA: tomar fotos de los involucrados en el operativo de narcotrfico en el aeropuerto Los Brasiles. It was Reaves who provided Seal with his first connection to the Medelln cartel. However, there was a moment when the pilot thought he had given himself up. -TIME. [46] He warned Seal that he intended to set strict probation provisions and that if Seal violated these, the plea bargain could be revoked and Seal re-sentenced. He was hired by Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1964 and at age 26 became one of the youngest Captains operating a Boeing 707. Hed get in his plane and hed go down there and throw 1,000 kilos on the plane and come back to Louisiana.. In an effort to frame the Sandinistas, the CIA installed a hidden camera in Seals C-130 cargo plane (the same plane, incidentally, that later crashed in Nicaragua leading to the capture of Eugene Hasenfus in October 1986). In court documents, the family alleged that "lapses in planning, coordinating, scheduling, and flight safety" contributed to the fatal crash in the mountains of Colombia. From 1980 on, Bottoms was the main pilot in Seal's smuggling enterprise, often flying with Camp while Seal oversaw planning and operations. Synopsis. [52], Six Colombians were quickly arrested in connection with the murder. A Fairchild C-123 military cargo plane similar to Barry Seals Fat Lady.. In total, he had illegally imported $3 to $5 billion worth of drugs and an estimated 56 tons of cocaine into the U.S., making over 100 flights. Featured Image:The low-res image of Frederico Vaughn (in the striped shirt) that Ronald Reagan offered as proof of Sandinista drug trafficking. The pickup went as planned this time, and the cameras successfully photographed Seal and several Nicaraguan soldiers loading cocaine, aided by Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (another important cartel member), and Federico Vaughan. [13] Seal's activities in Mena later became the subject of rumor and controversy, but according to Seal's biographer, former FBI agent Del Hahn, Seal did not use Mena as a drug transshipment point. The mysteries of Mena revolve around a drug-smuggling pilot named Barry Seal. [36], Despite the exposure, Seal was able to put together a second major undercover operation for the DEA later that year. In fact, in early 1986 Barry Seal was threatening GHW Bush to get the IRS off his back or he (Seal) was going to blow the whistle on the Contra scheme and CIA drug smuggling. They were all sentenced to life in prison. Wikimedia CommonsBarry Seal started his career as a pilot for Trans World Airlines but he soon turned to the more profitable life of drug smuggling. An AP dispatch (Omaha World-Herald, 7/29/88) disclosed that subcommittee staffers called Vaughns phone number in Managua and spoke to a domestic employee who said the house had been continuously rented by a U.S. embassy official since 1981. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. Times Staff Writers. He had previously been married to Barbara Bottoms (m. 1963-1971) and Lynn Ross (m. 1971-1972). He took it out for a test flight and never came back." -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. Particularly suspicious is the role of Federico Vaughn, the supposed Sandinista official, who appears to have been a US spy all along. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. YouTubeThe photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. What Journalists, Scholars and Activists Are Saying, The State Department Versus US Reporters in El Salvador, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. If not, they would continue on to drop sites over the Louisiana bayou, where duffel bags full of cocaine were tossed into the swamp. Yes, at least according to his wife and others who knew him. A July 17, 1984 front-page Washington Times article by Edmund Jacoby described a link between Nicaragua's Sandinista government and the Medelln drug cartel. Seal was originally introduced to the Medelln cartel members as a pilot named Ellis McKenzie. "You know, we're not making a biopic," said director Doug Liman. An Investigative Obituary. -Daily Mail Online, No. While the filmmakers were shooting the movie in South America, a local pilot who was working with them said that he had met Barry. This doesn't add up with the true story. Considering . As stated in the previous question, there is no strong evidence to confirm that Barry Seal was working with the CIA prior to becoming an informant after his arrest in 1983. Jacoby mentioned Seal's mission as evidence, which effectively outed Seal as a government agent. Barry Seal, the drug smuggler-turned-DEA informant who helped take down Pablo Escobar. -TIME, As a drug smuggler for Colombia's Medelln Cartel, Barry Seal earned as much as $500,000 per flight smuggling cocaine into the United States. Miguel Velez was the man driving the getaway car. The last movie was produced by Imagine Entertainment under Universal Pictures and was made after the company purchased Barry's life rights from Deborah at the cost of $350,000. [50] He had seen Cardona test-fire the murder weapon in Mermelstein's garage and bullets that matched the murder weapon were later extracted from the garage wall by FBI forensics. In 1988, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing that looked into how Seal's 1984 trip to Nicaragua was leaked to the press. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 Barry Seal was a pilot for TWA and later became a drug smuggler. Born in Baton Rouge in 1939 . At the height of his career, he was under investigation by the DEA in Mena, Arkansas, and New Orleans, Louisiana, in addition to being under the watchful eye of the FBI. Seal told friends that the judge "made me a clay pigeon. It proved impossible to impanel sufficient jurors in Baton Rouge, so the venue was moved to Lake Charles. Barry Seal, The Most Important Witness In The History Of The Drug Enforcement Administration. -The Independent, In the movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) starts working for the Medelln Cartel after they abduct him while he is refueling his plane and then make him an offer he can't refuse. . Wikimedia CommonsTom Cruise portrays Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made.. The photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. And Tomas Borges, the Ortega brothers equivalent of the Gestapo chief, was one of the overseers of drug shipments of planeloads destined to Mena air strip, in Arkansas, in 1983. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. Two indictments were returned against Seal in March 1983. The photos quickly leaked, boosting Washington's anti-Sandinista effort but likely putting a . They were then picked up by Seal's ground team and transported to the Colombian distributors in Florida. After a discussion about how to move the increased flow of cocaine, Escobar decided to keep the first shipment in Nicaragua and have Seal return to the States and buy a larger plane. . "Barry Seal, the charismatic narcotics air smuggler of the early . When it did, the overloaded plane crashed at the Colombia airfield on takeoff. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. Also, Mr. Seal, who also went by the name Bill Elders as well as variations of his real name, "testifies he made 6 or 7 hundred thousand dollars in trafficking drugs after he went to work for . [51], On the evening of February 19, 1986, Seal was shot to death in front of the Salvation Army Center, three weeks into his probation. President Reagan displayed Seals photo in a nationally televised speech in March 1986. But when he was busted in 1984, he decided to double-cross Escobar, and he soon became one of the Drug Enforcement Administrations most important informants. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. The photo was in a cardboard frame of the kind used by nightclubs and tourist attractions, with the date it was taken, January 22,1963, stamped on the back. Helicopters would pick up the contraband and transport it to off-loading sites and then on to Ochoa distributors in Miami by car or truck. Despite his successful career, Seal had his eye on more exhilarating endeavors. Soon after, JB is killed by a car bomb. He also provided testimony that led to drug charges against high-level government officials in Nicaragua and Turks and Caicos. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal's boredom with piloting commercial flights leads him to perform stunts that cause the oxygen masks to fall and frighten passengers. On June 25, 1984, the CIA placed hidden cameras in Seal's 123K plane that was directed to Los Brasiles, in Nicaragua: the photos that were taken show 'some Nicaraguan soldiers', Barry Seal, Pablo Escobar, Federico Vaughn, Emile Camp ('Seal's co-pilot') placing over one thousand kilos of cocaine onto the plane (Peet 2002). . We rely on your support to keep running. The Charmed, Doomed Life of Barry Seal. [40], Soon after the broadcast, the heads of the Florida and Louisiana task forces met to work out an agreement that would allow Seal to continue working with the Florida task force and testify as a witness at trial. [12] The number of planes and the frequency of flights soon attracted the attention of Louisiana State Police and Federal investigators. Barry Seal was one of the biggest drug smugglers in America in the 1970s and 80s. Barry Seal likely never worked for CIA, as shown in, Tom Cruise portrays Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made.. Seal used his knowledge of aviation to aid in his life of crime. Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. Seal began to fly as a teenager, earning a student pilot certificate at 16 and a private pilot's certificate at 17. Sixteen year-old Baton Rouge Civil Air Patrol cadet Barry Seal boards a U.S. Air Force plane on July 23, 1955 to fly to a two week training camp at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he will meet fellow cadet Lee Harvey Oswald . When Seal pulled into the center's lot and parked, a man got out of a car behind the center's donation drop boxes and opened fire with a suppressed MAC-10 submachine gun. That last statement was quite the understatement. Images like the one earlier on this page show Medelln Cartel boss Pablo Escobar with Sandinista government officials and soldiers, who were loading cocaine onto Seal's plane, nicknamed the Fat Lady. This operation involved a long, complicated cocaine shipment from Bolivia, refueling in Colombia, refueling again in Texas, and delivering the cocaine in Las Vegas. . The extent of Barry Seal's involvement with the CIA in the 1980s has provided fuel for speculation and conspiracy theories. His flight instructor described him as a naturally gifted pilot. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, Yes. From the get-go, he was a talented aviator, and before he graduated from high school in 1957, Seal had earned his private pilot wings. Executing secret missions for the government in the movie might add a sort of patriotism and redeeming quality to his character, but in real life Barry Seal was a drug smuggler first and foremost. -Daily Mail Online, No. [58], There was also extensive eyewitness and forensic evidence against Quintero-Cruz, Vlez, and Vsquez. Adler Berriman Seal (July 16, 1939 - February 19, 1986), better known as Barry Seal, was a United States drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medelln Cartel. American Made stars Tom Cruise as Barry Seal, a real-life former airline pilot who embarked on a wildly successful cocaine smuggling operation between Colombia and a tiny airstrip in Mena, Arkansas, in the 1980s. [44], When Seal received only time served and probation, Louisiana state and federal drug investigators were faced with a dilemma. Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. The 70s. He flew tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States until he was busted in 1983 and became one of the DEA's most important informants. . Photos; Visual Stories; Sub Menu 1. The life of the most important witness in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had come to a brutal end. It's certainly possible and it's what the movie proposes. Seal took pictures during the Nicaragua sting operation that showed Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vsquez, and other members of the Medelln Cartel loading kilos of cocaine onto a C-123 . Although Seal had pleaded guilty, with the support of his DEA supervisors, he was sentenced to five years of unsupervised probation. The second marriage, to Lynn Ross, lasted from 1971 to 1972. Stevens was the largest investment banker in the entire state of Arkansas. He was brought to the U.S. where he agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine. [2], In 1964, Seal joined TWA as a flight engineer and was soon promoted to the first officer, then captain, flying a Boeing 707 on a regular Western Europe route. FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. The Florida sentence meant no jail time for Seal in Louisiana, yet Seal was pleading guilty to buying 200 kilograms of cocaine, already more serious than the Florida charges. "Tom Cruise doesn't look like Barry Seal. Seal's active duty began in July 1962. Investigators are still trying to separate myth from reality. In his book, he uses case documents and first-person accounts to dispel this idea and other half-truths about Seal.
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