The guns were then flown to the contras in Nicaragua, the suit said. "I trusted him so I didn't ask questions," says Debbie. No word of the Hughes hearings appeared in the Washington Post or the New York Times. Barry Seal, at the time he died, may have been the . [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. 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. [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. Drug king pin, Adler B. New York, NY 10001. Things became worse when a report in the Washington Times on July 17 . Debbie, who was 21 at the time, met Barry, 33, while working as a cashier at a restaurant. The man said that despite the incident, he was still very fond of Barry. Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. 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). When Seal landed in the airfield, he was immediately surrounded by armed soldiers. Photo 1: This is a photo taken July 23, 1955. He had previously been married to Barbara Bottoms (m. 1963-1971) and Lynn Ross (m. 1971-1972). 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. . The movie's title was changed to put less emphasis on the Arkansas connection, including the possibility that Bill Clinton was aware of what was going on. 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. They put out a contract to kidnap or murder Seal. 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. In her suit, Lisa, who is not depicted in the movie, also claimed that there were factual inaccuracies in the script, including the fact that Barry had five children, not three, and that the movie falsely suggests he was an alcoholic and a reckless pilot. It's certainly possible and it's what the movie proposes. Operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) approaches Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) and tells him, "We need you to deliver stuff for us." Wikimedia CommonsA Fairchild C-123 military cargo plane similar to Barry Seals Fat Lady.. Additionally, the movie version of Seal quits his job with the airline to pursue a life of crime. Some stories are stranger than fiction. Seal was originally introduced to the Medelln cartel members as a pilot named Ellis McKenzie. [57], Uribe-Munera was a Colombian drug smuggler for the cartel. by Allie Gemmill. That film finds Seal (portrayed by Michael Par) being assassinated in a motorcycle drive-by shooting while he is driving and Robert Mazur (Cranston) is his passenger. President Reagan displayed Seals photo in a nationally televised speech in March 1986. [5] By 1978, he had expanded to flying significant loads of cocaine, pound-for-pound a much more profitable enterprise than marijuana smuggling. [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. Although Seal had pleaded guilty, with the support of his DEA supervisors, he was sentenced to five years of unsupervised probation. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. 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 . Widespread publicity and the general public outcry caused a delay of several months before Seal's murder trial began. In reality, there is no evidence that Seal was ever involved with the CIA. On Feb. 19, 1986, three Colombian hitmen that had been hired by the Medelln cartel tracked Seal down at the Salvation Army. It was probably shortly before the operation or thereabouts when he was enlisted to give us proof that the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua was actually . Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 February 19, 1986) was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel. On 1st July, 1972, Barry Seal was arrested in New Orleans and accused of sending C4 explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. The first indictment charged Seal alone with two counts of conspiracy to distribute methaqualone. He was married three times throughout his life. 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. -Good Morning America. [6] Also, after his release from prison Seal met William Roger Reaves on the flight back to the U.S. 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. [59] Another eyewitness saw Quintero-Cruz outside the car, handing the MAC-10 to the car driver through the window after the murder. A fourth man was indicted separately on lesser charges, and evidence of direct involvement was insufficient for two, who were released and deported. -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. Still unknown at the time, the cartel would go on to make hundreds of millions from the explosion of cocaine use in the U.S. Barry Seal, who became known as "El Gordo" (The Fat Man), ended up being an integral part of that success. However, some still allege the opposite, that the government turned a blind eye to Seal's drug running in order to use him to deliver weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels. What is certain is that Barry Seal did work for Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas as a drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel and single-handedly had one of the largest impacts on the cocaine epidemic in the U.S. in the early 1980s. [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. Barry also got lucky and captured photos of the communist leader of the Sandinistas . -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 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. When did you first hear about Barry Seal?. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel. 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. Yes. [36], Despite the exposure, Seal was able to put together a second major undercover operation for the DEA later that year. Plumlee also said he is in the infamous "Mexico City" picture, seated across the table from Seal and peering out from behind his jacket. 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. (Barry) Seal was a key player at Mena. On July 17, 1984, an article detailing Seals infiltration of the Medelln cartel hit the front page of the Washington Times. 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. Alder Berriman, or Barry Seal, was one of America's most notorious drug smugglers. The plane was hit and Seal had to make an emergency landing at Sandino International Airport in Managua. 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 . 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. [14], By 1981, DEA agents in Florida were aware of Seal's smuggling activities. The DEA initially tried to protect Seal, but he refused to go into the Witness Protection Program. The memorable scene never happened in real life. [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. -Daily Mail Online, No. In Tom Cruise's latest film he plays the pilot, drug smuggler, and informant Barry Seal. 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. Conspiracy theorists have gone as far as suggesting that the government ordered the hit on Seal, not the cartel, a suggestion that has never been supported by any proof. Now thats excitement.. 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. However, when a drug shipment was seized by the DEA, the Medellin Cartel blamed Seal for the loss. 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. Embracing his entrepreneurial spirit, as a teenager he started a small business flying ads from his airplane. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. If he had in fact been working for the CIA at the time, his connections didn't get him off the hook. Liman has referred to the film as "a fun lie based on a true story" (TIME). -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. Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. 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. Featured Image:The low-res image of Frederico Vaughn (in the striped shirt) that Ronald Reagan offered as proof of Sandinista drug trafficking. [42] Following his testimony in Las Vegas, Seal spent another month in a witness protection center. Barry and his wife talked about going into witness protection, but like in the movie, he decided against it. Barry Seal was one of the biggest drug smugglers in America in the 1970s and 80s. Although newspapers published his name after his arrest, Seal was known to the Ochoas as Ellis MacKenzie. [7], To expand his smuggling capacity, Seal also hired William Bottoms, his ex-brother-in-law, as a pilot. A Fairchild C-123 military cargo plane similar to Barry Seals Fat Lady.. "He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. 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. Seal took pictures during the Nicaragua sting operation that clearly showed Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa . It was likely the longest day of his entire life. Hed get in his plane and hed go down there and throw 1,000 kilos on the plane and come back to Louisiana.. 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. 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 . . An Investigative Obituary. Domhnall Gleeson, right, stars in director Doug Liman's crime drama 'American Made,' based loosely on the story of Baton Rouge native Barry Seal, a pilot-turned-smugger-turned-federal-informant. After this look at the brazen smuggler Barry Seal, check out how the Medelln cartel became one of the most ruthless crime syndicates in history. 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. DEA Agent Ernest Jacobsen later said the technology they used was the most expensive cryptic radio communications we had ever seen at the time.. FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says Liman. Bush's anti-drug task force in hopes of convincing them of his value as an informant. 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. In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group for six years. Synopsis. 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. 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. Seal's story is the focus of the . His flight instructor described him as a naturally gifted pilot. When he learned that he would probably be killed afterward, he refused. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 - February 19, . [42], Following his testimony in the Miami trials, Seal appeared in Florida court again over his second indictment in the Big Screamer operation. Both rejected any deals, even though Seal told them a little about his involvement with the Ochoa family. The photo was taken in Mexico when he was 24. . He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." "He thought we had more time. 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 was murdered on February 19, 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel. In real life, his first encounter with the Medelln Cartel happened less dramatically. 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). Seal frequently smuggled 1,000 to 1,500 kilos of the illicit substance between Nicaragua and Louisiana, and he quickly earned a reputation in the world of drug trafficking. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, Yes. Seal's active duty began in July 1962. Among other things, the panel sought to determine if top leaders of the Colombian cocaine cartel escaped arrest because the much ballyhooed war on drugs took a back seat to a covert operation designed to discredit the Nicaraguan government this at a time when the administration was seeking additional aid to the Contras. 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. Despite his successful career, Seal had his eye on more exhilarating endeavors. In 1981, he was making daily deposits of $50,000 into an account at a bank in the Bahamas. According to Del Hahn's book Smuggler's End, Barry Seal was not chummy with the cartel bosses. They married in 1974. . She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. Seal told friends that the judge "made me a clay pigeon. Three Colombians supposedly sent by the Ochoas, including Cruz and Velez, were later arrested at the airport. But he did become one of the most important DEA informants, infiltrating the Medelln cartels inner circle. But the 1984 investigation got derailed when Seal told his handlers that cocaine was being trans-shipped through Nicaragua with the permission of high-level government officials. Concurrently, they had to make sure not to raise the suspicions of the ruthless Colombian drug lords. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. Using pilots like Barry Seal was a means to an end. FAIRs work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. -Daily Mail Online. "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. In 1981, the pilot made his first flight for the Ochoa brothers, a founding family of the cartel. His humble roots certainly didnt foreshadow what would become, quite literally, a blockbuster life. It was in 1973, the year that followed the end of his second marriage that Seal got married to Deborah DuBois and they . Barry also had a daughter and a son not shown in the movie, Lisa and Alder, with his first wife Barbara Bottoms. 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. 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. [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 Original Documentary By Barry Seal Uncovering His Work With The Cartels & The US Government. The ultimate hope was to arrest the cartel leaders in a jurisdiction where it would be easy to extract them. Seal began to fly as a teenager, earning a student pilot certificate at 16 and a private pilot's certificate at 17. [38], While Seal had come to an agreement with the DEA and the Florida drug task force in March 1984, he was still under active investigation by state and federal authorities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Little Rock, Arkansas. He would have to operate the rear camera by hand. Barry Seal, The Most Important Witness In The History Of The Drug Enforcement Administration. -Daily Mail Online, "Mena" refers to the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal moved his operation, smuggling in drugs to a clandestine airfield under the nose of then-Governor Bill Clinton. [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. Yes. The office referred Seal to DEA headquarters, which assigned DEA agent Ernst Jacobsen to debrief Seal and evaluate his potential as an informant. "I fly airplanes. 4 - July/August, Iran-Contra Affair. 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. We rely on your support to keep running. Polozola took the occasion to say that people like Seal were "the lowest, most despicable people I can think of." 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 . Subcommittee chairman William J. Hughes strongly suggested that North was the source of the leak, but Representative Bill McCollum said, "we don't know who leaked this. When you see the photos, you will understand why. He is familiar with Barry's work as a pilot, but . Seal was hit six times and died almost instantly. 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. The extent of Barry Seal's involvement with the CIA in the 1980s has provided fuel for speculation and conspiracy theories. Adler Berriman Barry Seal (July 16, 1939 February 19, 1986) was an American airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medelln Cartel. YouTubeThe photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. [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. He was unaware that a Colombian assassin was hiding behind one of the donation drop boxes. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. 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 . Watch President Ronald Reagan's address to the nation on Nicaragua and Central America, delivered from the Oval Office on November 13, 1986. 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. [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. With Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons. 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. 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 was born on July 16, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Barry's widow, Deborah Seal, says that he began smuggling drugs in 1975, first focusing mainly on marijuana. 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. 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 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. The real Barry Seal claimed he had been working for agencies . FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. In October 1984, a grand jury in Louisiana was convened and began interviewing witnesses against Seal. Comenz a volar aviones a temprana edad y segn su instructor de vuelo, Seal tena un talento innato. They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Yes. Even criminals have a love life and Barry Seal was no different. 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. 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. The documentary series, titled "Uncle Sam Wants You", ran on five consecutive evenings. He testified that in January 1986, he was ordered by Jorge Ochoa to kill Seal. Originally planned for mid-April, the flight did not take place until the end of May. Investigators are still trying to separate myth from reality. The photograph taken by Barry Seal that outed Pablo Escobar as the Medelln cartels drug kingpin. Miguel Velez was the man driving the getaway car. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. Like in the movie, the American Made true story reveals that Barry made a living as a commercial airline pilot for several years. 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. The 70s. -Daily Mail Online. [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. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. No. The second indictment charged Seal and three others with multiple counts of possession and distribution of methaqualone, phenobarbital, and meperidine.[16]. [23], These arrangements were not yet complete, so Seal's first shipment was to be a direct flight to the U.S. The real Barry Seal never had a brother-in-law who was killed by a car bomb. 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. Exclusive: Tom Cruise's portrayal of drug-smuggler-turned-government-informant Barry Seal is a fast-paced visit back to the Reagan era . . 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. The two American . UPI reported: "By linking the Sandinistas with drug traffic aid to the rebels accused of human rights violations might seem more palatable". MIAMI (AP) _ The plane downed in Nicaragua had been used in Vietnam, a TV movie and possibly in an undercover drug sting that led to the indictment of a Sandinista official, newspapers reported today. [8], In 1981, Seal began smuggling cocaine for the Medelln Cartel. "He stopped in there and, just like that, he asked me out," says Debbie. 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. When it did, the overloaded plane crashed at the Colombia airfield on takeoff. Watch an interview with the real Barry Seal where he discusses his undercover mission, and listen to President Ronald Reagan talk about the photos Seal obtained on the mission. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. He soon began using his flight skills for another purpose: smuggling. [59], In January 2023, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards denied Vsquez's request for clemency. Barry Seal was fired from TWA in 1974 for falsely citing medical leave when he was actually off trafficking weapons. When faced with criminal prosecution, Seal turned snitch for the DEA, but he continued to smuggle drugs into the US. [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". Yes. The cameras were rigged so that Seal could use a remote control button hidden in his pocket to snap photos at will. Seal used his knowledge of aviation to aid in his life of crime. Either Seal take these photos, or go straight to prison. [66][67] Hawkins told Frontline that neither she nor her staff leaked the information after the briefing. He was one of the youngest 707 command pilots in the TWA fleet. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. He flew down to Medelln for the meeting on April 8, accompanied by a Miami based cartel pilot who was unaware of Seal's role as an informant. The mysteries of Mena revolve around a drug-smuggling pilot named Barry Seal. "The DEA agents who worked with Barry loved him," said director Doug Liman. 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.