Three Colombians supposedly sent by the Ochoas, including Cruz and Velez, were later arrested at the airport. After refueling, Seal left Los Brasiles flying without lights, and when he came close to Managua, he was fired on by Nicaraguan military units. 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. Author Del Hahn, a former FBI agent who wrote the book about Seal titled Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, told Vice, "Seal thought he was smarter and cleverer than the Ochoas," who are one of the founding families of the Medelln Cartel. [61], Seal was married three times. [1], In 1962, Seal enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard for six years: six months of active duty, followed by five and a half years of inactive duty. The Story Behind an Infamous Escobar Cartel Assassination. The True Story Behind the Movie American Made - Yahoo! News A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. You can also support FAIR on Patreon! Barry Seal, drug smuggler and undercover DEA agent back - Substack Facing major prison time, Seal attempted to cut various deals with the DEA. His character is inspired by the stories we learned about Barry." JB is fictional. 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. [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. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. Barry Seal | Welcome to Conspiracy Research -The Hollywood Reporter, Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. Through his cartel contacts in Miami, Seal arranged a meeting using the name Ellis McKenzie (the real name of another Seal associate). The Nevada aviator killed when a cargo plane was shot down in Nicaragua last weekend served as one of the CIA's chief pilots in . The narcotics runner, Barry Seal, allegedly . [13], To avoid this unwanted attention, Seal moved his aircraft to Mena Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena, Arkansas, where he did maintenance and modifications to improve the planes' carrying capacity and avionics. He was assigned to the 20th Special Forces Group and graduated from the United States Army Airborne School selection and training. Barry and his wife talked about going into witness protection, but like in the movie, he decided against it. [50] Before Mermelstein had located Seal, however, he was arrested by a federal task force in June 1985. Seal took pictures during a Nicaragua sting operation clearly showing members of the Colombian Cartel loading kilos of cocaine onto the plane. 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. The story included the photograph Seal had taken of Escobar handling the cocaine. After several months of contacts, the agent negotiated a deal with Seal to smuggle 1,200 pounds of methaqualone tablets into the United States (the tablets were counterfeits, made of chalk). Agente Barry Seal - laprensani.com On Feb. 19, 1986, three Colombian hitmen that had been hired by the Medelln cartel tracked Seal down at the Salvation Army. Barry Seal | Facts, Summary, Biography, Smuggling & Crimes . Questioned about the identity of the source, DEA agent Ernst Jacobson replied, "I heard that the leak came from an aide in the White House". -TIME. 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. Instead the Times ran a brief item in its Sunday national edition (7/31/88) quoting President Reagans weekly radio broadcast about how Sandinista officials are still involved in drug trafficking. Jeb Bush and the 1986 Murder of CIA Drug Smuggler Barry Seal Barry Seal immediately became a marked man. [57], Uribe-Munera was a Colombian drug smuggler for the cartel. [42] Following his testimony in Las Vegas, Seal spent another month in a witness protection center. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Barry Seal - Wikipedia They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). As a child in the 1950s, Seal worked odd jobs around the citys old airport in exchange for flight time. If he had in fact been working for the CIA at the time, his connections didn't get him off the hook. However, the film takes certain liberties in regard to Seals life as well. Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. Adler "Barry" Seal's third wife and the three children she had with him did not violate the slain drug smuggler-turned-government informant's privacy rights when they sold the story of his life to . 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. 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. [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. The memorable scene never happened in real life. ", No. Yes. 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. 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 . An FBI sting. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. The gunman was later identified as Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz. He made more than $50 million smuggling drugs into the United States from South America between 1977 and 1986. . -The Independent, Not likely. In researching the American Made true story, we learned that Barry Seal was arrested by customs officers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983 as he tried to smuggle 200,000 units of Quaalude, a recreational drug, into the country. American Made is a fascinating biopic about Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who worked with the CIA to run drugs and guns in South America. Advertisement Photos Of The Real Barry Seal From 'American Made' Only Add To The Guns, Drugs, CIA at Mena, Arkansas: Judicial Watch Demands Answers 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 also got lucky and captured photos of the communist leader of the Sandinistas . Barry Seal: El traficante (2017) Primer Triler Oficial Espaol "Doug and I are both aviators, so we both love to fly.". That aspect of who he was has never been disputed. The mysteries of Mena revolve around a drug-smuggling pilot named Barry Seal. In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group for six years. Barry Seal: Uncle Sam Wants You (1984) - YouTube [6] Also, after his release from prison Seal met William Roger Reaves on the flight back to the U.S. Featured Image:The low-res image of Frederico Vaughn (in the striped shirt) that Ronald Reagan offered as proof of Sandinista drug trafficking. In exploring the American Made true story, we discovered that Doug Liman's father, lawyer Arthur L. Liman, ran the Senate investigation into Iran-Contra. Nicaragua's Drug Connection Exposed as Hoax - FAIR All three were found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. 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. Alder Berriman, or Barry Seal, was one of America's most notorious drug smugglers. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information. The life of the most important witness in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had come to a brutal end. The story of Barry Seal has since been made into films such as Doublecrossed (1991), Infiltrator (2016) and American Made (2017). -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. 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. Three of them, Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz, Miguel Vlez, and Bernardo Antonio Vsquez, were indicted on state charges for capital murder. Additionally, the movie version of Seal quits his job with the airline to pursue a life of crime. Saunders was videotaped paying a bribe to Seal in Miami, and was also successfully prosecuted. He was murdered on February 19, 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel. In reality, there is no evidence that Seal was ever involved with the CIA. 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. [41], Seal was taken into federal custody in June 1985 and spent several months testifying in court. 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. [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. They married in 1974. Despite differences in body type To mCruise is not the 300-pound man that the Medelln cartel referred to as El Gordo, or Fat Man Seal was just as charismatic and took many of the extreme risks portrayed in the film. Barry Seal, el piloto traficante que crey ser ms - infobae 1986, President Ronald Reagan showed one of the photos Seal had taken of Pablo Escobar and Nicaraguan government official Federico Vaughan loading cocaine onto Seal's C-123 cargo plane, The Fat Lady. He added, That boy was first cousin to a bird.. Before returning to Nicaragua, the DEA arranged for CIA technicians to . [59], In January 2023, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards denied Vsquez's request for clemency. He soon told the task force about the contract, and Seal was informed that the cartel was offering $500,000 for his death. In 2017, Seal's life became the subject of a second Hollywood adaptation titled American Made and starred Tom Cruise. 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. The extent of Barry Seal's involvement with the CIA in the 1980s has provided fuel for speculation and conspiracy theories. In 1981, the pilot made his first flight for the Ochoa brothers, a founding family of the cartel. -Refinery29, Yes. "I fly airplanes. [32], However, the Nicaragua undercover operation came to an end soon after Seal's return from his second trip when it was reported in the press. The film stars Tom Cruise as Barry . In this photo Barry Seal is third from the bottom left, with a drink in his left hand. "He would tell me all these wild stories about the missions he had flown. Seal told friends that the judge "made me a clay pigeon. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. He was born on July 16, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to author Del Hahn, who wrote the book Smuggler's End, next to Barry's yearbook photo was the description, "Full of fun, full of folly" (TIME). Activities at airport in Mena detailed - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [35], Following the exposure of the Nicaraguan investigation, the DEA had to move quickly to arrest the cartel distributors in Miami. -Daily Mail Online, No. [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. Either Seal take these photos, or go straight to prison. In many ways, the movie American Made does a faithful job of portraying Seals larger-than-life personality. It turns out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the United States. As part of his reduced sentence, the judge had ordered Barry to spend his nights, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at a Salvation Army halfway house for six months. Barry Seal - gunrunner, drug trafficker, and covert C.I.A. Barry Seal, the smuggling pilot who thought he was smarter than the He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. Seal began to fly as a teenager, earning a student pilot certificate at 16 and a private pilot's certificate at 17. When faced with criminal prosecution, Seal turned snitch for the DEA, but he continued to smuggle drugs into the US. Special Reports - Interview | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS Barry Seal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Mary Lou (ne Delcambre) and Benjamin Curtis Seal, a candy wholesaler. Why Bill Clinton And George W. Bush Are Portrayed In A Tom Cruise Movie The cameras were rigged so that Seal could use a remote control button hidden in his pocket to snap photos at will. Operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) approaches Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) and tells him, "We need you to deliver stuff for us." An "extensive joint investigation" by the FBI, Arkansas State Police and IRS revealed that Barry Seal used the Mena airport for "smuggling activity" from late 1980 until March 1984, according to . Adler Berriman 'Barry' Seal se convirti en el piloto ms joven de los Estados Unidos, destreza que us para hacerse uno de los hombres ms ricos de ese pas en la dcada de los 80's. Ello . She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. 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. Barry Seal modern day outlaw, adventurer, and drug smuggler, full of fun, full of folly . -Daily Mail Online. . However, when a drug shipment was seized by the DEA, the Medellin Cartel blamed Seal for the loss. Facing a heavy sentence, and having been rejected by regional drug task forces in both Florida and Louisiana, Seal decided to try contacting the Vice President's Drug Task Force, a special program in the office of then-Vice President George Bush. Barry Seal, el piloto que trabaj para la CIA, fue narcotraficante e [15] The investigation into Seal was part of a major undercover operation called Operation Screamer in which over 80 pilots were eventually indicted. Yes. What Happened To Barry Seal and Who Were His Wives and Children? 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. -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. In American Made, facts matter less than fiction. Aterriz en el aeropuerto y junto con las personas que lo esperaban carg unos bultos. [4], Seal admitted that he started smuggling small amounts of marijuana by air in early 1976. This operation involved a long, complicated cocaine shipment from Bolivia, refueling in Colombia, refueling again in Texas, and delivering the cocaine in Las Vegas. Investigators are still trying to separate myth from reality. The Charmed, Doomed Life of Barry Seal - Consortium News . All three trials resulted in convictions for all defendants. . Stevens was the largest investment banker in the entire state of Arkansas. 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?" In 2017, Seals life became the subject of a Hollywood adaptation titled American Made, starring Tom Cruise. That last statement was quite the understatement. 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. [19] Seal then pleaded guilty to the second indictment in Florida and was released with his sentence to depend on his performance as an informant. Despite the movie attempting to pin it on North, Jacoby later said that North was not his source and that it was a deceased Special Forces and CIA guy named Ted Lunger, who at the time worked as a staff member for Representative Dan Daniel. FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. And though the tale of Barry Seal - drug smuggler, double-crosser, pilot extraordinaire - has now been transformed into a raucous Hollywood caper with Tom Cruise at the helm, the true story would be too . American Made (2017) - IMDb 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. Barry Seal: Worked for CIA and Pablo Escobar | Gentleman's Journal "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says director Doug Liman, who is a pilot himself (Vulture.com). Barry's widow, Deborah Seal, says that he began smuggling drugs in 1975, first focusing mainly on marijuana. Adler (Barry) Seal, a pilot and drug smuggler from Baton Rouge, La., who became an undercover informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency, flew the plane to the Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base . 4 - July/August, Iran-Contra Affair. The cartel tells Barry that they'll deal with JB, a suggestion that Barry opposes. He had been arrested in 1972 by the U.S. Customs Service for trying to fly 1,350 pounds of plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans via Mexico. 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. Drug king pin, Adler B. This past weekend, American Made lost out on the top box office spot in a neck and neck race with It, missing first place by a scant $300,000 . 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. A DC-4 was seized at the Shreveport Regional Airport loaded with almost seven tons of plastic C-4 explosives, 7,000 feet of explosive primer cord and 2,600 electric blasting caps. Photo credit: Peter Sutton. He took it out for a test flight and never came back." He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." [60] All three men's fingerprints were found in the vehicle. She says that she thought he was an airplane broker and also that he rented out old anti-aircraft lighting for various promotional events. (Barry) Seal was a key player at Mena. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. '80s drug, gun saga portrayed in new Tom Cruise movie remains sore spot -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal. The state narcotics agents who were investigating Seal in Baton Rouge sued over their depiction in the series, but the lawsuit was dismissed. 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. [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. Hed work at the drop of a hat, and he didnt care, a fellow smuggler later recalled of Seal. Barry Seal likely never worked for CIA, as shown in, Tom Cruise portrays Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made.. Smuggler's End : The Life and Death of Barry Seal 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. In addition to implicating Escobar as a drug kingpin, Seals photos provided evidence that the Sandinistas, Nicaraguan revolutionaries who overthrew the countrys dictator in 1979, were being funded by drug money. [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. What's Fact and What's Fiction in American Made - Slate Magazine FAIRs work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. Barry Seal: The Real Renegade Pilot Behind Tom Cruise's 'American Made' He is familiar with Barry's work as a pilot, but . Barry Seal (Photo: Facebook) . To muffle the sound, Seal turned on all the planes generators and he got his photographic evidence. [36], Despite the exposure, Seal was able to put together a second major undercover operation for the DEA later that year. The office referred Seal to DEA headquarters, which assigned DEA agent Ernst Jacobsen to debrief Seal and evaluate his potential as an informant. [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.