Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 – February 19, 1986) was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel.

[2] In 1964, Seal joined TWA as a flight engineer and was soon promoted to the first officer, then captain, flying a Boeing 707 on a regular Western Europe route.

[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.

The case was eventually dismissed in 1974 for prosecutorial misconduct, but in the meantime TWA fired Seal, who had falsely taken medical leave to participate in the scheme.

[5] Seal's operations received an important boost when he was arrested and jailed in Honduras on the return leg of a drug-smuggling trip to Ecuador.

[14] However, an "extensive joint investigation" by the FBI, Arkansas State Police, and IRS revealed in 2020 that Barry Seal had in fact used the Mena airport for "smuggling activity" from late 1980 until March 1984.

In March of 1984, now facing a ten-year prison sentence, Seal decided to contact the South Florida Task Force - a cross-agency drug interdiction team led by then-Vice President George H.W.

[22] The South Florida Task Force planned an operation that directed Seal to set up a cocaine purchase with the Ochoas and other cartel members, which would provide a basis for future indictments in the United States.

He flew down to Medellín for the meeting on April 8, and was accompanied by a Miami based cartel pilot who was unaware of Seal's role as an informant.

[24] The Colombian government had recently conducted a major raid on the cartel's manufacturing facilities at a remote jungle location called Tranquilandia, resulting in the destruction of millions of dollars of both processed and unprocessed cocaine.

Seal's claims about this meeting and its aftermath, as presented by the Reagan administration, were denied by the Sandinista government and resulted in serious scrutiny by the media.

According to Seal, the traffickers were making arrangements to set up shipping and production facilities in Nicaragua, where they had struck a deal with the Sandinista government.

After refueling, Seal left Los Brasiles, flying without lights, and was fired upon by Nicaraguan military units as he flew near Managua.

[27] This account was criticized by reporter Jonathan Kwinty, then working as a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal, in a critique of the administration's claims in April 1987, who pointed out that the Administration had earlier referred to Los Brasiles as a military facility, while later acknowledging it to be a civilian field primarily used by crop-dusters, as the field was listed at the time by Department of Defense documentation.

Kwinty's reported that Vaughn had worked in the interior ministry as the deputy manager of a state-run import-export business, and not as aide to Borge.

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.

The pickup went as planned this time, and the cameras successfully photographed Seal and several individuals loading cocaine, aided by Pablo Escobar, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (another important cartel member), and Federico Vaughan.

The drugs could not be distributed, and the immediate arrest of those handling the vehicle would suggest to the Colombians that Seal had betrayed them, so DEA agents staged an accident with the camper, allowing the driver to escape.

[35] 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.

[37] A more detailed account of American efforts in Nicaragua appeared on July 17 in an article by reporter Edmond Jacoby, published on the front page of the Washington Times.

[41] In February, Seal also played a central role in an undercover operation against Norman Saunders, chief minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British colony south of the Bahamas.

[42] 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.

[43] Seal attempted to push back against the investigation by appearing in a television news series broadcast by WBRZ in Baton Rouge in November 1984.

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.

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".

UPI reported: "By linking the Sandinistas with drug traffic ... aid to the rebels accused of human rights violations might seem more palatable".

[68] 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".

[69] In an interview with Frontline, North said he was told by his superiors on the National Security Council to brief Senator Paula Hawkins about the operation, but he denied leaking the report.

Government attorneys stated that Seal placed himself in danger by refusing to move his family and enter a witness protection program.

[73] Some accounts like that of Alexander Cockburn suggested that Barry Seal's connections with the CIA might date back to the 1960s when he was allegedly a special forces helicopter pilot in Vietnam or even to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961.