Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was born July 16, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He became a licensed pilot in his teens and joined [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]] in 1964 as a flight engineer, rising to one of the youngest Boeing 747 captains in the fleet. He was fired in July 1972 after being implicated in a conspiracy to smuggle plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico using a DC-4. He was killed February 19, 1986, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- shot six times with a MAC-10 submachine gun by a contract killer while sitting in his Cadillac outside a Salvation Army rehabilitation center where he was required to report under the terms of a criminal sentence.[^1] ### Drug Trafficking Career Seal began air smuggling marijuana from Honduras around 1976 and transitioned to cocaine by 1978. By 1981 he had established himself as the primary U.S. distribution pilot for the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín Cartel]], working directly with [[Pablo Escobar]] and Fabio Ochoa. At his peak, Seal earned up to $500,000 per flight. Over the course of his trafficking career he flew an estimated 100 or more flights, importing approximately 56 tons of cocaine with a street value estimated at $3 billion to $5 billion; his personal net worth at the time of his death was estimated at $60 million.[^2] From approximately late 1980 through March 1984, Seal used the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport in Mena, [[Arkansas]], for aircraft maintenance and modifications, including enlarging cargo capacity and improving avionics on his aircraft. An investigation by the FBI, Arkansas State Police, and IRS documented Seal's smuggling operations through Mena during this period. The Arkansas deputy prosecuting attorney in Mena requested $25,000 from the governor's office to impanel a state grand jury investigating personnel who assisted Seal's operations; the request received no response.[^2] ### DEA Informant In March 1984, Seal was arrested with 462 pounds of Medellín cocaine aboard his plane. Facing a potential ten-year sentence, he signed an agreement on March 28, 1984, to become a DEA informant under agent Ernst Jacobsen. He pleaded guilty to his Florida indictment and was released pending performance as a confidential source. The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] installed concealed cameras in Seal's cargo aircraft. On June 25, 1984, at the Los Brasiles airfield outside Managua, Nicaragua, the cameras photographed [[Pablo Escobar]], José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, and Federico Vaughan -- an official of the Nicaraguan Sandinista government -- loading cocaine onto Seal's plane for transport to the United States. This photographic evidence was used by the Reagan administration in its anti-Sandinista campaign; President [[Ronald Reagan]] displayed a copy of the image in a nationally televised address on March 16, 1986.[^2] On July 17, 1984, the *Washington Times* published details of Seal's infiltration operation, including the photograph, effectively burning him as an undercover source. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 1988 investigation, chaired by Senator [[John Kerry]], concluded this leak originated with [[Oliver North]].[^3] ### Assassination The Medellín Cartel placed a $500,000 contract on Seal's life after his role as an informant was exposed. On February 19, 1986, Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz shot Seal with a MAC-10 submachine gun in Baton Rouge. Three Colombian nationals were convicted of first-degree murder in April 1987: Quintero-Cruz (triggerman), Miguel Vélez (driver), and Bernardo Antonio Vásquez. Federal charges were also brought against Escobar and Fabio Ochoa for conspiring to murder Seal. Former cartel member Max Mermelstein testified that the contract was authorized at a meeting attended by Escobar and Ochoa in December 1984.[^1] ### The Fat Lady and the Hasenfus Shootdown Seal operated a Fairchild C-123K transport, tail number N4410F, which he nicknamed "The Fat Lady" and had fitted with CIA camera equipment for the Nicaraguan operation. After his death, the aircraft came under the control of North's covert Contra resupply network. On October 5, 1986 - more than seven months after Seal's assassination - a Nicaraguan soldier shot down N4410F with a shoulder-launched SAM-7 missile while it was on a weapons delivery flight to the [[Contras]]. [[Eugene Hasenfus]], a former [[Air America]] cargo handler serving as the aircraft's kicker, survived by parachuting and was captured. His capture and subsequent press conference in Managua directly exposed the existence of North's private Contra supply network, triggering the unraveling of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^3] ### Meese and the DOJ The attorney general of Louisiana wrote to Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]] characterizing Seal's smuggling operation as having transported "$3 billion to $5 billion worth of drugs into the U.S." Despite the scale of Seal's operations, which made him the largest cocaine importer then operating in the American South, the Department of Justice under Meese dropped federal cases against Seal and related figures over the objections of state and federal law enforcement officials. The stated justification was that prosecution would expose national security information related to covert operations.[^4] ### Footnotes [^1]: "Barry Seal." FBI Famous Cases and Criminals; U.S. Department of Justice press releases, United States v. Quintero-Cruz, 1987. [^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. [^3]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement, and Foreign Policy: A Report.* 100th Congress, 2nd Session, December 1988. (Kerry Committee Report.) [^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998; see also Edwin Meese page, re: reported Louisiana attorney general letter.