In 1983, the DEA arrested him on drug smuggling charges. But there were still questions regarding the Mena airport and people who worked there, according to the FBI memo. See Rafael L Mena's age, phone number, house address, email address, social media accounts, public records, and check for criminal records on Spokeo. I first traveled to Mena in 1994, reporting for the Wall Street Journal editorial page. When he returned to Little Rock, he called his brother Dwayne. "In other words, the charges of drug smuggling and money laundering were not enough to warrant the release of information about the use of the airport in the Iran-Contra Affair," wrote Sherwood for the Arkansas encyclopedia. "Despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protests of state and federal law enforcement officials, the cases were dropped," according to the report. No. In the meantime, we are receiving media queries on Mena, most recently from Michael Isikoff of Newsweek n 18 July. When ABC News interviewed Brown in the fall of 1994, the White House tried to malign him. 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. Then Brown says, Seal and the kickers returned, carrying four duffel bags. 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. As stated in the previous question, there is no strong evidence to confirm that Barry Seal was working with the CIA prior to becoming an informant after his arrest in 1983. ", No. All were wearing jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. The name of another person under investigation was redacted. "At the time Seal started cooperating with DEA Miami, he had an established base at Rich Mountain Aviation and had frequent contact with subjects," according to the document. 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. Creating Epstein: Bill Barr Leslie Wexner & the CIA, Bonnie's Clyde: The True Story of Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell, Revisiting Mena, Bill Clinton, the CIA & Barry Seal. Barr opposed the independent counsels investigation of wrongdoing in the White House and facilitated Bushs famous1992 Christmas Eve pardonsof six of the co-conspirators of Iran-Contra. "He would tell me all these wild stories about the missions he had flown. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. A Seal associate cut a runway deep in the woods. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. "According to some reports, the [Mena] airport, from 1981 to 1985, was a major transit point for the entrance of cocaine and heroin into the United States," Sherwood wrote. Seal, Brown says, had also prescribed the dress code, and insisted that no one carry identification, not even keys or jewelry. However, the U.S. needed a way to covertly get the funds and weapons to the rebels. var sc_project=5585388; Tax records show that, having assessed Seal posthumously for some $86 million in back taxes on his earnings from Mena and elsewhere between 1981 and 1983, even the l.R.S. var sc_invisible=1; The name of another person under investigation was redacted. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal. 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. Approximately 30 minutes later, Brown says, the C-123K landed in what he later learned what Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Bush's anti-drug task force in hopes of convincing them of his value as an informant. After being caught in Honduras with 40 kilograms of cocaine in 1979, Barry spent nine months in a Honduran jail. Two years later, he would be shot dead in Louisiana. In fact, even the Wikipedia links Ive included in this paragraph are mostly lies. "It's my understanding that no drugs ever came to the airport," said Fred Ogden, the current airport manager. BEST OF: Left Targets Elon Musk, FBI Investigated Fauci Agency, CA Court Vi BEST OF: Twitter Changed Rules to Ban Trump! Email Address: v EVIO @gmail.com +2 emails. In fact, I still had a letter from the former director advising me, in case Id planned to make copies, that the file held some 3,000 pages.. Documents and a surviving crew member tied the shipment to the CIA and the White House, dragging a Seal connection into the Iran-Contra affair. 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. Rayburn House Office Building, Chairman James Leach (R-IA), Committee on Banking and Financial Services, and staffer . 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. "Doug and I are both aviators, so we both love to fly.". 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. As Barry opened the driver's side door to get out of the car, the gunman rushed from behind the drop box and fired a .45 caliber Mac-10 machine gun, hitting Barry in the head and body several times. Money from the sale of weapons to Iran was used to help fund the rebels in Nicaragua. And for thirty years, every attempt to get to the bottom of events at Menafederal, state, judicial, journalistichas failed. In the 1980s the smallairportin Arkansas known as Mena became part of the largest covert operation in history. He concluded by saying that Mena was a federal, not a state, matter. Upset that he has lost his pension and healthcare at TWA, he embraces the idea of making $2,000 per kilo of cocaine smuggled into the United States. Seal was shot dead in 1986 at a safe house in Baton Rouge . Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In the least, his exploits with the CIA and agent Monty Schafer in the movie are largely fictional and based on speculation. Seal, a pilot, moved much of his smuggling operation from Baton Rouge to Rich Mountain Aviation at the Mena Intermountain Airport, according to the May 1986 FBI memo. 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. The man who made Baton Rouge headlines in the mid-1980s for the machine-gun killing of drug informant Adler "Barry" Seal died in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Aug. 25, Louisiana. Brown says Clinton told him not to worry. Soon after, JB is killed by a car bomb. Reprints and media inquiries: [emailprotected]. -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. -Daily Mail Online. On Watch: CROSSFIRE HURRICANE Targeting of Trump from A to Z. 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. Mena, Arkansas, as a staging point for weapons supply flights. 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). Then, Brown says, Seal reached again into the duffel bag and pulled out a kilogram of cocaine. Brown recalls that on the morning of this particular flight, Seal had told him to drive to Mena Intermountain Regional Airport, a remote air strip near the Oklahoma border. They shared an interest in books, ideas, and night life. Thats when he said, You having any fun yet.. apartments in dallas that allow airbnb Uncovering hot babes since 1919. In February 1986, Seal was killed outside . barry seal mena house address. Barry Seal was an American-born Trans World Airlines pilot who . After Barry spoiler . "The information indicates that Seal was an informant for DEA at the time but also working as an operative of the CIA. Yes. 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. This draws the attention of the CIA. But there were still questions regarding the Mena airport and people who worked there, according to the FBI memo. Arcadia Inc Plant / Vernon. 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. Suddenly, though, the Arkansas State Police were uncooperative. The is the latest repackaging of allegations previously made by the Wall Street Journal. Brown and the co-pilot, who never exchanged any more than a few words, remained on board. Hadaway. Patterson said he had overheard conversations about large quantities of drugs being flow into Mena airport, large quantities of guns, that there was an ongoing operation training foreign people in the area. When asked, Were any of these conversations in the presence of Gov. He was unaware that a Colombian assassin was hiding behind one of the donation drop boxes. In 1981, Seal set up shop at Mena. "The estimated value of the narcotics smuggled through the facility is $3 [billion] to $5 billion. The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. About 25 pages of that trove refer to Arkansas or Mena. country of residence flight check in; nathaniel rateliff gallagher way; filming locations for she out of my league. 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. Election Law Update, Heavy Lifting Ne NYC Cleans Voter Rolls Thanks To Judicial Watch. Gov. The DEA had been onto him for a long time. 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 an internal FBI document released last week. He says that he wanted to go public with his revelations about Mena, but that he did not know whom to tell. 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. The irony is that he might have remained reluctant, but then the White House itself intervened. Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 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