[25] Vaughan was an aide to Tomas Borge, Nicaraguan Minister of the Interior. After being caught in Honduras with 40 kilograms of cocaine in 1979, Barry spent nine months in a Honduran jail. Do your research about it, link the dots, because Democrats were defending the Sandinistas, while they smeared the Contras and the Reagan administration, who they were fighting to prevent the US and USSR from getting the IMD treaty nuclear weapons treaty from being signed. Oct. 10, 1986 12 AM PT. I never saw drugs, that's for sure." It proved impossible to impanel sufficient jurors in Baton Rouge, so the venue was moved to Lake Charles. 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. Seal surrendered to federal authorities at the end of April 1983 and attempted to make a deal, first with the Florida task force, then with the Baton Rouge task force. However, when a drug shipment was seized by the DEA, the Medellin Cartel blamed Seal for the loss. . Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. They also claimed that the pilot who died lacked the necessary experience for the flight. [8], In 1981, Seal began smuggling cocaine for the Medelln Cartel. In fact, it was Seal who provided the DEA with the photos of Escobar that exposed him as a major drug kingpin. The true story of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who became a drug smuggler and government informant, played by Tom Cruise in "American Made." . Yes. Revisiting Mena, Bill Clinton, the CIA & Barry Seal 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. He was brought to the U.S. where he agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine. Other photos like the one below show Federico Vaughan (center, striped shirt), a man that Seal claimed was a top aide of Tomas Borge, the Sandinista Minister of the Interior. Polozola took the occasion to say that people like Seal were "the lowest, most despicable people I can think of." 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. 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. Barry Seal - NNDB Exclusive: Tom Cruise's portrayal of drug-smuggler-turned-government-informant Barry Seal is a fast-paced visit back to the Reagan era . Aterriz en el aeropuerto y junto con las personas que lo esperaban carg unos bultos. [30] Unfortunately, the driver was arrested by local police, and the circumstances of the seizure raised the suspicions of the cartel. This doesn't add up with the true story. (Barry) Seal was a key player at Mena. Basically, Seal would fly over the guns and smuggle back drugs on his return trip. 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 . Max Mermelstein, a high-level cartel distributor in Miami, later testified in court that he was shown the documentary a few days after it was broadcast and was told that the cartel wanted Seal either captured or killed: the price was $500,000 if Seal was killed, and $1,000,000 if he was captured alive. Universal Pictures. Photos; Visual Stories; Sub Menu 1. The photos quickly leaked, boosting Washington's anti-Sandinista effort but likely putting a . 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. Yet, it's also certainly possible that Seal had no involvement with the CIA in the early 1980s at all, given there is nothing to support the claim but rumors. It is not clear whether Seal and his crew were informed of this before they returned to Nicaragua. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel. Unfortunately, this meant that angry cartel members would know exactly where to find him. His father was a candy wholesaler and an alleged KKK member, according to Spartacus Educational. Barry Seal - Wikispooks Considering . The unnamed embassy official, according to Hughes, was among the group of U.S. officials recently expelled by the Nicaraguan government after a violent political demonstrations in July. President Reagan displayed Seals photo in a nationally televised speech in March 1986. 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. He was murdered on February 19, 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel. She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. Twin Beech | Beaumont Hotel Barry Seal: Worked for CIA and Pablo Escobar | Gentleman's Journal Yes. JB is fictional. 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. [23], These arrangements were not yet complete, so Seal's first shipment was to be a direct flight to the U.S. [46] . . -Good Morning America. American Made: Directed by Doug Liman. 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. 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. During Bill Clinton's campaign to become president of the United States in 1992, his biggest financial contributor was a billionaire businessman named Jackson Stevens. The marriage ended with his death in 1986. The mysteries of Mena revolve around a drug-smuggling pilot named Barry Seal. Barry Seal: Uncle Sam Wants You (1984) - YouTube Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. Barry Seal: El traficante (2017) Primer Triler Oficial Espaol [5], Ironically, Seal's operations received an important boost when he was arrested and jailed in Honduras on the return leg of a drug-smuggling trip to Ecuador. He made four trips to Nicaragua that year, allegedly to document the complicity in cocaine trafficking. Like in the American Made movie, Barry Seal was allowed to fly out of the country and return with illegal drugs that the feds made sure never reached their targets. The story included the photograph Seal had taken of Escobar handling the cocaine. Barry Seal | Welcome to Conspiracy Research [45], At Seal's sentencing hearing in January 1986, Judge Frank Polozola acknowledged that he was bound by the agreement, but informed Seal and his lawyer of his dissatisfaction with Seal's failure to receive jail time in Florida, forcing Polozola to sentence Seal to probation on much more serious charges in Louisiana. On Feb. 19, 1986, Barry Seal, a very prominent CIA drug smuggler and ace pilot, was murdered outside his halfway house in Baton Rouge, LA. The first indictment charged Seal alone with two counts of conspiracy to distribute methaqualone. Although Seals first foray into smuggling failed, by 1975, he had started trafficking marijuana between the U.S. and Central and South America. Barry Seal immediately became a marked man. 'Barry Seal - Traficante Americano' estreia em Portugal esta quinta-feira, dia 31 de agosto. However, the film takes certain liberties in regard to Seals life as well. 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. Air Cocaine: the Wild, True Story of Drug-Running, Arms Smuggling and [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. [59] Another eyewitness saw Quintero-Cruz outside the car, handing the MAC-10 to the car driver through the window after the murder. He was murdered on February 19, 1986, by contract killers hired by the cartel. Twitter/VICEBarry Seal likely never worked for CIA, as shown in American Made. [49] Although the newspaper report and the arrest of their Miami distributors confirmed that their pilot was DEA, it was not until the cartel members received a copy of Seal's television documentary that they learned McKenzie was Seal. 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. [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]. -Refinery29, Yes. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says Liman. Later, the CIA turns a blind eye to his drug smuggling in exchange for his delivery of . . Barry Seal, drug smuggler and undercover DEA agent back - Substack [61], Seal was married three times. The gunman was later identified as Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz. Barry Seal Wiki: Death, Wife, Family, Net Worth - Earn The Necklace American Made vs. the True Story of Barry Seal - HistoryvsHollywood.com CBS Evening News (7/28/88), the only major network to cover the proceedings, reported on the testimony of DEA agent Ernest Jacobsen, who said that White House officials undermined a DEA probe of the Colombian cocaine kingpins by blowing an undercover informants cover when they leaked information in an attempt to link Nicaragua to the drug trade. Indeed, at age 26, Seal became one of the youngest pilots to ever fly for Trans World Airlines. It was in 1973, the year that followed the end of his second marriage that Seal got married to Deborah DuBois and they . [14], By 1981, DEA agents in Florida were aware of Seal's smuggling activities. Plumlee also said he is in the infamous "Mexico City" picture, seated across the table from Seal and peering out from behind his jacket. The state narcotics agents who were investigating Seal in Baton Rouge sued over their depiction in the series, but the lawsuit was dismissed. 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. This draws the attention of the CIA. The second indictment charged Seal and three others with multiple counts of possession and distribution of methaqualone, phenobarbital, and meperidine.[16]. An interesting fact we learned while researching the true story was that while training for the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge, Barry Seal met President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Barry Seal was a pilot for TWA and later became a drug smuggler. This, transporting cocaine for the Ochoa brothers, Pablo Escobar's associates who helped him found the Medelln Cartel. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot's license at age 15 and pilot's license at 16. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. 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. Despite the heat surrounding Seal, he made a drug run to Nicaragua in 1984, where he picked up 1,465 pounds of . In this photo Barry Seal is third from the bottom left, with a drink in his left hand. The film stars Tom Cruise as Barry . [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. "He thought we had more time. The White House saw the pictures as proof of the communist Sandinista government's corruption and believed that the photos would help to convince the public of the need to support and arm the rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua. If not, they would continue on to drop sites over the Louisiana bayou, where duffel bags full of cocaine were tossed into the swamp. [42], Following his testimony in the Miami trials, Seal appeared in Florida court again over his second indictment in the Big Screamer operation. I was young and it was impressive." The box housing the camera was supposed to be soundproof, but when he took the first picture, it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Seal's story is the focus of the . Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 Just prior to the movie's release, news broke that the family of deceased stunt pilot Alan Purwin was suing American Made's producers for wrongful death. The DEA had been onto him for a long time. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. [1] In this capacity, he worked for both the CIA and Pablo Escobar. -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. hiding a camera on Seal's plane to catch photos and confirmed the Nicaragua-Medellin link, Jacobsen said. "I fly airplanes. Before returning to Nicaragua, the DEA arranged for CIA technicians to . They had anticipated Seal would serve substantial time in Florida and were now bound by the agreement Florida and Louisiana drug task forces had made in December 1984. [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. [25] The drugs were unloaded by the military and Seal and his co-pilot were taken to detention in downtown Managua, where they were released to the cartel's Nicaraguan contact, Federico Vaughan. Originally planned for mid-April, the flight did not take place until the end of May. Fact-checking American Made immediately revealed that Tom Cruise looks nothing like the real Barry Seal, who weighed around 280lbs and was nicknamed "El Gordo" (The Fat Man) by his bosses. 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. But the media showed much less interest when subcommittee chairman Hughes recently disclosed he had new evidence that the entire Sandinista connection was a US intelligence fabrication. a secret camera in Seal's C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. Seal took pictures during the Nicaragua sting operation that clearly showed Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa . -Daily Mail Online, No. 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 . -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal. Government attorneys stated that Seal placed himself in danger by refusing to move his family and enter a witness protection program.[69]. -TIME. Barry also got lucky and captured photos of the communist leader of the Sandinistas . Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. His character is inspired by the stories we learned about Barry." Barry Seal was an ace pilot and a drug smuggler of such proportions that he has been called "the biggest drug smuggler in American History". According to Del Hahn's book Smuggler's End, Barry Seal was not chummy with the cartel bosses. [29], The drugs could not be distributed, and the immediate arrest of those handling the vehicle would suggest to the Colombians that Seal had betrayed them, so DEA agents staged an accident with the camper, allowing the driver to escape. 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. When shot down Sunday, the plane reportedly was carrying 50,000 rounds of ammunition for Soviet-made AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, dozens of automatic rifles, boots and other supplies . Her character in the American Made movie is much more aware and suspicious of her husband's activities, stating that she flat out doesn't trust him, which is the opposite of Seal's real-life wife. [5] By 1978, he had expanded to flying significant loads of cocaine, pound-for-pound a much more profitable enterprise than marijuana smuggling. The accident didn't happen during filming. Three of them, Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz, Miguel Vlez, and Bernardo Antonio Vsquez, were indicted on state charges for capital murder. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barry_Seal&oldid=1141963050, Drug Enforcement Administration informants, People murdered by Colombian organized crime, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Seal is portrayed by the actor Sebastin Snchez in, Seal is portrayed by theater director Thaddeus Phillips under his real name also of his nickname Ellis McKenzie in the 2013 TV series, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 20:01. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. The cameras were rigged so that Seal could use a remote control button hidden in his pocket to snap photos at will. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot . Barry met Debbie while he was on his way to a hearing after he was caught in 1972 trying to smuggle military explosives out of the country. -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. I guess he also thought Colombians would stick out like a sore thumb in Louisiana and they wouldn't come here." The life of the most important witness in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had come to a brutal end. The memorable scene never happened in real life. The guns were then flown to the contras in Nicaragua, the suit said. On July 17, 1984, an article detailing Seals infiltration of the Medelln cartel hit the front page of the Washington Times. He ultimately offered to act as an informant, passing along information about Escobar, the Medelln cartel, and high-level government officials in Central America who were involved in trafficking drugs to the U.S. Jeb Bush, Oliver North and the Murder of CIA Drug Smuggler Barry Seal [17] Without a deal, Seal was tried in February 1984 and after a month-long trial was convicted on all the counts in the first indictment. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. Pablo . FAIRs work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. He added, That boy was first cousin to a bird.. However, there was a moment when the pilot thought he had given himself up. The photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 - February 19, . [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. Debbie became Barry's third wife. Barry Seal, the drug smuggler-turned-DEA informant who helped take down Pablo Escobar. [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. Now a Tom Cruise film, the story of Barry Seal, American pilot for the No. -Daily Mail Online. [68], Louisiana Attorney General William Guste wrote to United States Attorney General Edwin Meese criticizing the government's failure to protect Seal as a witness. No. '80s drug, gun saga portrayed in new Tom Cruise movie remains sore spot Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. 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. 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. In October 1984, a grand jury in Louisiana was convened and began interviewing witnesses against Seal. Universal Pictures. Tom Cruise is moving on from his Mummy -fied adventures in 2017, with his next big release, American Made, hitting theaters soon. "He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. The photo was taken in Mexico when he was 24. . After refueling, Seal left Los Brasiles flying without lights, and when he came close to Managua, he was fired on by Nicaraguan military units. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. As author Del Hahn states in his book about Barry Seal's life, Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, there is no evidence to support claims that Barry Seal worked for the CIA.
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