They could locate no files on Seal. "He stopped in there and, just like that, he asked me out," says Debbie. -The Independent, Not likely. Current Address: ZGFJ N 18th St, Phoenix, AZ. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." He was unaware that a Colombian assassin was hiding behind one of the donation drop boxes. jewish british actresses; how old is meryl lipstein After Barry spoiler . Judicial Watch Victories: Courts Declare California Quota Laws Unconstituti BEST OF: Top Anti-Corruption Victories in 2022. There is no real-life Monty. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. 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. Two duffel bags were put on board the plane at Tegucigalpa. No. var sc_invisible=1; Operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) approaches Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) and tells him, "We need you to deliver stuff for us." attorney.". -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. 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.. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. In another deposition in the case, John Bender, a mechanic, says he saw Clinton at Mena three times in the summer of 1985. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. These are the equivalent of Barry Seal in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell covert operation. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Seal is purported to have flown guns to South America from Mena and drugs back into the United States, according to the memo. Barry Seal was one of the most renowned American dealers that smuggled weapons and drugs in the USA Barry Seal became an aviator at only 16 years old, and as soon as he received his pilot licence, he started smuggling weapons He had strong relations with the Madelln Cartel, i.e. On one CIA-involved mission in 1984, a secret camera in Seals C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. Seal was shot dead in 1986 at a safe house in Baton Rouge . Lisa Seal Frigon, Barry's daughter from his first marriage, sued Universal, claiming that the studio should have purchased Barry's life rights from her, not his third wife Deborah who they paid $350,000. All rights reserved. Goodwin told me and ABC that Brown had passed it. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. -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. The Sandinistas overthrew Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending 46 years of dictatorship by the Somoza family. Using pilots like Barry Seal was a means to an end. And for thirty years, every attempt to get to the bottom of events at Menafederal, state, judicial, journalistichas failed. While at a bar one night, Barry is found by a man saying his name is Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson). In the years that followed his split from Clinton, Brown investigated white-collar crime for the Arkansas State Police. This doesn't add up with the true story. "Little Rock [FBI] is attempting to establish that [redacted] modified, maintained and stored Seal's aircraft with the knowledge that he was involved in cocaine smuggling activities prior to Seal's plea bargaining agreement on March 24, 1984," according to the memo. Clinton appeared to have pressured Hale, the head of an Arkansas lending agency, into making loans to Susan McDougal, the Clintons Whitewater real estate partner. individuals, 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. Inside the plane, according to Brown, were another pilot and two beaners common laborers who looked like Central American Indians. The DEA had been onto him for a long time. Fact-checking American Made revealed that Monty Schafer is a fictional character created to represent Barry Seal's contacts at the CIA. (function() { Brown still has books that Clinton gave him, one being a bar exam study book in which the politician had made some ironic under-linings. "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. Jul 04, 2022 12:40 P.M. Then it was refueled while Sale and the kickers got off. -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. Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. Even before he graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1957, Seal had already earned his private pilot's wings. People in Mena say the drugs never got there, that the drugs were jettisoned over drop zones in the Louisiana swamps before Seal's planes made it back to Mena. The story took on a new life when Bill Clinton ran for president. Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal grew up in south Baton Rouge in the 1950s. An index was completed and the book was listed in the University of Arkansas Press catalog. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. No convincing explanation was offered for this act of censorship. "Tom Cruise doesn't look like Barry Seal. "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. Brown says he realized then that everything is going to come out. Nonetheless, he still seemed reluctant to disclose all he knew. It does seem, however, that Clinton was far less cautious. Terms & conditions/privacy policy apply. If he had in fact been working for the CIA at the time, his connections didn't get him off the hook. 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. Bush's anti-drug task force in hopes of convincing them of his value as an informant. During the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, the U.S. plotted to secretly help the rebels (Contras) overthrow Nicaragua's Communist Sandinista government. "The estimated value of the narcotics smuggled through the facility is $3 [billion] to $5 billion. Debbie became Barry's third wife. One passage discusses the deductibility of charitable donations, and another the length of residency required in Washington before tax liability is incurred. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. When Brown returned to the Governors mansion, he recalls, Clinton greeted him jovially, You having any fun yet? he asked. Young has since been made head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in Denton, Texas. People in Mena say the drugs never got there, that the drugs were jettisoned over drop zones in the Louisiana swamps before Seal's planes made it back to Mena. Rafael Mena; Arizona; Phoenix; Rafael L Mena; Rafael L Mena, Age 71. aka Rafael J Mena. Magruder, Brown says, asked him if he would be interested in paramilitary, counterintelligence and narcotics. Brown, who had worked in narcotics enforcement as a police officer, said he was interested. -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. 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. By providing your phone number, you are consenting to receive calls and recurring SMS/MMS messages, including autodialed and automated calls and texts, to that number from the Judicial Watch. 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. While the filmmakers were shooting the movie in South America, a local pilot who was working with them said that he had met Barry. Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was. The name of another person under investigation was redacted. Walker said a huge dark-green military plane was parked there, and that when he expressed surprise at seeing a military plane at Mena, Clinton said it was not military; it served another purpose. foundations, and corporations and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. I knew the agency had an extensive file on Seal, Leveritt wrote, because Id read it decades earlier, shortly after Seals murder. var sc_partition=60; Many names in the documents have been redacted. Liman has referred to the film as "a fun lie based on a true story" (TIME). In the meantime, we are receiving media queries on Mena, most recently from Michael Isikoff of Newsweek n 18 July. 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. According to investigative records compiled by the Arkansas State Police and other agencies, the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport served as a second home for Barry Seal, a. The goal was to expose the involvement of the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime as a major supplier of cocaine from Colombia.". -Good Morning America. Cocainea lot of itflowed in. According to Del Hahn's book Smuggler's End, Barry Seal was not chummy with the cartel bosses. Meanwhile, others are now coming forward to confirm a Clinton connection to Mena. Then Brown says, Seal and the kickers returned, carrying four duffel bags. He carries it around and begins spending it, which attracts the attention of the local authorities. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. Exclusive: Tom Cruise's portrayal of drug-smuggler-turned-government-informant Barry Seal is a fast-paced visit back to the Reagan era's shadowy world of the CIA, cocaine and secret wars . "I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. var _gaq = _gaq || []; Barry Seal, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate. In 1986, he was convicted of drug distribution, and lost his state securities license. 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