Adler Berriman Seal, or "Barry Seal" was a pilot, allegedly with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and later drug smuggler turned Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. After a 1984 arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for money laundering and Quaalude smuggling, Seal negotiated a plea bargain that included him becoming an informant for the DEA and testifying against his former Colombian employers, putting several of them in jail. He was murdered on February 19, 1986 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seal also ran a large drug smuggling ring out of Mena, Arkansas that was rumored to be sanctioned by state and federal officials such as George H.W. Bush and then Governor Bill Clinton. This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ... These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA The illegal drug trade is a global black market activity consisting of production, distribution, packaging and sale of illegal psychoactive substances. ... Since 1973, the DEA has enforced the drug laws in the United States. ... An informant (sometimes informer) is someone who provides information to law enforcement agencies. ... Nickname: Venice of America Location of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, Florida. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and destination of the money in question. ... Methaqualone tablets and capsules. ... A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ... February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Red Stick Motto: Authentic Louisiana at every turn Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish East Baton Rouge Parish Founded 1699 Incorporated 16 January 1817 Mayor Melvin Kip Holden (D) Area    - City 204. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Mena is a city in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. ...

Undercover Informant

In an attempt to lessen his sentence from his 1984 arrest in Florida, Seal agreed to cooperate with the DEA, and testify against his former colleagues. Amongst those Seal testified against were Prime Minister Norman Saunders and members of the Medellín Cartel. Seal also testified before the President's Commission on Organized Crime in October of 1985. To turn states evidence is when an accused or convicted criminal testifies as a witness for the state against his associates or accomplices. ... List of Chief Ministers of the Turks and Caicos Islands Categories: | ... Norman B. Saunders (born 1943) is a former politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. ... The Medellín Cartel was a well-organized network of drug smugglers originating in the city of Medellín in Colombia and operating through the 1970s and 1980s. ...

Seal had also been used by the DEA and CIA in an attempted sting operation against the Sandinistan government in Nicaragua. In 1984 Seal arrived at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida with a shipment of cocaine that had been allegedly brokered through the Sandinistan government. Seal testified that pictures taken during the trip showed Sandinistan officials brokering a cocaine deal with members of Colombia’s drug cartel, although the poor quality of the pictures meant that Seal’s eyewitness account was the primary evidence for the claim. The story was later broken by both The Washington Times and The Wall Street Journal, exposing Seal’s identity and involvement of his former Colombian associates. In law enforcement a sting operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime, by means of deception. ... Sandinista! is also the name of a popular music album by The Clash. ... Homestead Air Force Base, located 22 miles SSW of Miami, Florida (25 29 31. ... Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... The Washington Times[1] is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., United States. ... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with a worldwide average daily circulation of more than 2. ...

As part of his plea agreement, Seal was ordered to a halfway house in Baton Rouge, where he was murdered.

As another minor historical and coincidental note, the same C-123 Provider that was leased by a CIA front company (Southern Air Transport) that was used in the sting operation was later shot down by Sandinista 12.7 mm machine gun fire while air dropping supplies to Contras forces in Nicaraguan air space and the sole survivor, Eugene H. Hasenfus, was captured by the Nicaraguan government, bringing to light the international drug- and weapons-trafficking scandal dubbed the Iran-Contra Affair. A United States Coast Guard HC-123B Provider The C-123 Provider, originally as an assault glider aircraft for the United States Air Force by Chase Aircraft, was developed into a powered transport aircraft by the Fairchild Company, and went on to serve most notably with US forces in South... The Contras (from the Spanish term La Contra, short for movement of the contrarrevolucionarios) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (which ended the Somoza dynasty), and continuing throughout the... Eugene H. Hasenfus (born January 22, 1941) was an unemployed Wisconsin construction worker who got a stint as a cargo handler for the CIA. He was aboard a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane that was shot down over Nicaragua on October 5, 1986 while illegally delivering weapons to the Nicaraguan... The Iran-Contra Affair (also called the Iran-Contra Matter and Iran-gate) was one of the largest political scandals in the United States during the 1980s. ...

Further reading

• Page on Seal
• PBS’s Frontline: Thirty Years of America’s Drug War: A Chronology
• "The Kingpin and his many connections" Michael Haddigan, The Arkansas Gazette
• Terry Reed and John Cummings, Compromised: Clinton, Bush, and the CIA (Clandestine Publishing, 1995) ISBN 1-883955-02-5