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TwitterBarry Seal, the drug smuggler-turned-DEA informant who helped take down Pablo Escobar. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel. While there, he had a chance meeting with Jorge Ochoa's New Orleans business manager. 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. 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. They were then picked up by Seal's ground team and transported to the Colombian distributors in Florida. Seal's story is the focus of the . The pilot flew into Nicaragua with CIA cameras on his plane, taking photos showing Escobar and several other members of the Cartel . On July 17, 1984, an article detailing Seals infiltration of the Medelln cartel hit the front page of the Washington Times. . recalled how "The one time I flew with him [Seal] to Nicaragua . As the cocaine was being loaded onto his plane, Seal noticed that the remote control for the camera was malfunctioning. But before he died, the photographs he captured made Pablo Escobar a wanted criminal and ultimately played an important part in the drug kingpins downfall in 1993. Arthur, the chief council, investigated the CIA and questioned Col. Oliver North, who is depicted in American Made. If they were, the mission was aborted. 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. Seal's Drug Enforcement Administration file also supports this, noting that he was smuggling marijuana as early as 1976, then adding cocaine to his resume in 1978. [25] Vaughan was an aide to Tomas Borge, Nicaraguan Minister of the Interior. Seal made important connections while in prison in Honduras, including Emile Camp, a fellow Louisiana pilot and smuggler who became one of Seal's closest associates, and Ellis McKenzie, a local Honduran smuggler. But he did become one of the most important DEA informants, infiltrating the Medelln cartels inner circle. -Refinery29, Yes. The photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. The accident didn't happen during filming. 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. No other name is perhaps more associated with the Iran-Contra affair than Oliver North, but his involvement in exposing Barry Seal's mission and blowing his cover is unknown and entirely speculation. [3] Seal's career with TWA ended in July 1972, when he was arrested for involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle a shipment of plastic explosives to Mexico using a DC-4. -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. He also provided testimony that led to drug charges against high-level government officials in Nicaragua and Turks and Caicos. FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. which had installed itself in Nicaragua; Seal claimed the Sandinistas had made a deal with the Medellin Cartel, and proof of such could lend justification to the . I never saw drugs, that's for sure." Tom Cruise is moving on from his Mummy -fied adventures in 2017, with his next big release, American Made, hitting theaters soon. While the filmmakers were shooting the movie in South America, a local pilot who was working with them said that he had met Barry. In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. [52], Six Colombians were quickly arrested in connection with the murder. 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. Particularly suspicious is the role of Federico Vaughn, the supposed Sandinista official, who appears to have been a US spy all along. He carries it around and begins spending it, which attracts the attention of the local authorities. 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. 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. Barry's widow, Deborah Seal, says that he began smuggling drugs in 1975, first focusing mainly on marijuana. [60] All three men's fingerprints were found in the vehicle. While at a bar one night, Barry is found by a man saying his name is Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson). The assassination happened on February 19, 1986 in the parking lot in front of the Salvation Army building on Airline Highway (U.S. 61) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seal pilote un avin C-123 que llevaba tambin unas cmaras fotogrficas escondidas. No. He was hired by Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1964 and at age 26 became one of the youngest Captains operating a Boeing 707. . [59] Another eyewitness saw Quintero-Cruz outside the car, handing the MAC-10 to the car driver through the window after the murder. He stated that IranContra figure Oliver North had attended two meetings about the sting operation and had the motivation to release the information. [1] In this capacity, he worked for both the CIA and Pablo Escobar. A work of Doug Liman, previously known for Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the new film, American Made, could turn out to be the crime drama of the year in its telling of Seal's story. The case was eventually dismissed in 1974 for prosecutorial misconduct, but in the meantime TWA fired Seal, who had falsely taken medical leave to participate in the scheme. Seal said that he started by doing things like flying guns for the CIA to revolution fighters in Cuba in the late 1950s and flying operations for U.S. Army Special Forces in Laos just prior to the Vietnam War. "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. [66] Jacoby later denied that North was the source of his story and attributed it to a deceased staff member for Representative Dan Daniel. [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. When he learned that he would probably be killed afterward, he refused. The case against the cartel had been engineered by Barry Seal, a convicted drug dealer turned informant who worked closely with Vice President George Bush's anti-drug task force in Washington. [23], These arrangements were not yet complete, so Seal's first shipment was to be a direct flight to the U.S. Instead, he testified against Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, and Jorge Ochoa in front of a federal grand jury. Surprisingly, American Made actually downplayed just how integral an asset Seal was to the DEA especially when it came to taking down the Medelln cartel. Barry Seal (Photo: Facebook) . 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? [43] After listening to summaries of Seal's successful work for the DEA, Judge Norman Roettger sentenced Seal to time served (a little over three months in witness protection) and three years probation. And Seal never quit his job but was instead fired when Trans World Airlines learned hed been trafficking weapons instead of taking medical leave, as hed claimed. Their operation proved so successful that Seal was at one time considered the biggest drug smuggler in Louisiana state. Discerning fact from fiction about Barry Seal, who was killed Feb. 19, 1986, in Baton Rouge by machine gun-wielding Colombian hit men, is a difficult endeavor. He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. Wouldn't it be fun if they were fooling around in a plane and the plane went into the same kind of parabolic arc and they got pinned against the ceiling?" [65] In an interview with Frontline, North said he was told by his superiors on the National Security Council to brief Senator Paula Hawkins about the operation, but he denied leaking the report. Barry Seal, The Most Important Witness In The History Of The Drug Enforcement Administration. [7], To expand his smuggling capacity, Seal also hired William Bottoms, his ex-brother-in-law, as a pilot. Seal was originally introduced to the Medelln cartel members as a pilot named Ellis McKenzie. Doug Liman had previously modeled Chris Cooper's villain in The Bourne Identity after North, which reveals Liman's feelings about the controversial figure North. All three were found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. 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. Click the button below! -Vulture.com Barry Seal was a ballsy and confident risk taker, who rarely acknowledged the possibility of failure, and that's just how Tom Cruise portrays him in the American Made movie. [22] The Colombian government had recently conducted a major raid on the cartel's manufacturing facilities at a remote jungle location called Tranquilandia, and they told Seal that they were making arrangements to set up shipping and production facilities in Nicaragua, where they had struck a deal with the Sandinista government. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. Source - educationforum.ipbhost.com "Texas Gov. Photo 1: This is a photo taken July 23, 1955. His cooperation led to many convictions, as well as indictments against Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa, two of the founding members of the Medelln Cartel. [20], The Florida Task Force plan called for Seal to set up a cocaine purchase with the Ochoas and other cartel members, providing the basis for indictments in the U.S. Seal had previously dealt with the cartel through another associate so that they were unaware of his real name. Adler Berriman 'Barry' Seal became the youngest pilot in the United States, a skill he used to become one of the richest men in that country in the 1980s. [61], Seal was married three times. It's certainly possible and it's what the movie proposes. Soon, Seal caught the attention of none other than Pablo Escobar and his Medelln cartel. He was murdered on February 19, 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel. hiding a camera on Seal's plane to catch photos and confirmed the Nicaragua-Medellin link, Jacobsen said. There is no information on Barry Seal's net worth, but it must have been substantial. Basically, Seal would fly over the guns and smuggle back drugs on his return trip. The guns were then flown to the contras in Nicaragua, the suit said. 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. 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. [33], A more detailed account of American efforts in Nicaragua appeared on July 17 in an article by reporter Edmond Jacoby, published on the front page of the Washington Times. [42], Following his testimony in the Miami trials, Seal appeared in Florida court again over his second indictment in the Big Screamer operation. Featured Image:The low-res image of Frederico Vaughn (in the striped shirt) that Ronald Reagan offered as proof of Sandinista drug trafficking. The Ochoa Family, along with Pablo Escobar and others, were the founders of the Medelln Cartel. [4], Seal admitted that he started smuggling small amounts of marijuana by air in early 1976. In October 1985 he returned to court over the first indictment in Big Screamer, for which he had originally been sentenced to ten years. Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. Ochoa was arrested in Spain on a U.S. warrant, but due to pressure from the cartel was never extradited to the U.S. -Court Documents (STATE of Louisiana v. Miguel VELEZ, Bernardo Vasquez, and Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz), Yes. Drug king pin, Adler B. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot . From earning his pilots license at the age of 16 to his blood-soaked end at the hands of a notorious cartel, Seal certainly got the life of excitement that he so desired. 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. WASHINGTON . The DEA had been informed before the publication of the Jacoby article, so they were still able to have Seal set up a meeting with the chief cartel supervisor in Miami, Carlos Bustamonte, and arrested him on July 17, along with other cartel employees. 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. For example . Born in Baton Rouge in 1939 . Wikimedia CommonsTom Cruise portrays Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made.. 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. "Barry Seal was a friend of mine," Plumlee says. Alder Berriman Berry Seals life has become somewhat distorted over the years, and it isnt really a mystery why: such an exciting and controversial story is bound to be reproduced or exaggerated. "He stopped in there and, just like that, he asked me out," says Debbie. The flight, in January 1985, was successful and led to arrests and convictions. The explosives were supposedly going to anti-Castro Cuban fighters. 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. He ultimately escaped prosecution, and some believe this was because he was secretly working as an informant for the CIA, though there is no real proof that he ever worked for the agency. According to the Washington Post, Seal earned as much as $1.5 million per flight, and by the end, he had accumulated up to $100 million. Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. 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. Comenz a volar aviones a temprana edad y segn su instructor de vuelo, Seal tena un talento innato. -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. That last statement was quite the understatement. 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. 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. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. 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. Seal's exploits brought him into close contact with infamous figures like Medelln cartel kingpins Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa and Panama dictator Manuel Noriega and he was . [14], By 1981, DEA agents in Florida were aware of Seal's smuggling activities. When did you first hear about Barry Seal?. They agreed to a sentence for Seal's Louisiana activities no greater than the sentence he received for his Florida smuggling, with both sentences to run concurrently. It was in 1973, the year that followed the end of his second marriage that Seal got married to Deborah DuBois and they . YouTubeThe photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. His father was a candy wholesaler and an alleged KKK member, according to Spartacus Educational. The photo was taken in Mexico when he was 24. . We rely on your support to keep running. George W. Bush was literally being flown around in what had been the favorite plane of the murdered CIA asset and drug runner Barry Sealon the exact same day (2/19/86) Barry Seal was murdered in Baton Rouge, his mistress "Barbara" was also murdered in Miami; two other men also affiliated with the Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Carrera .