Barry Seal, The ‘Most Important Witness’ In The History Of The Drug Enforcement Administration

Barry Seal, The ‘Most Important Witness’ In The History Of The Drug Enforcement Administration

In the mid-1970s, Barry Seal was a successful young pilot with Trans World Airlines — but he had a dangerous secret. In his spare time, Seal smuggled drugs and weapons between the U.S. and Central America. In fact, in 1974, he was fired by the airline for saying he was on medical leave when he was actually trafficking explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. Seal then turned his full attention to drug smuggling, and he even started working for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel. He was carrying 462 pounds of Escobar's cocaine when he was caught by the Drug Enforcement Administration and arrested in 1984.

But instead of accepting his fate, Seal told the DEA he would work for them as an informant to avoid prosecution. It was Seal who provided the photos to American authorities that exposed Escobar as a major drug kingpin. The pilot testified in front of a federal grand jury about Escobar and his cohorts Carlos Lehder and Jorge Ochoa, and additional testimony that he provided led to drug charges against high-level government officials in Nicaragua and Turks and Caicos. Seal was dubbed "the most important witness in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration" — but that title came with a hefty price. In 1986, Barry Seal was gunned down by hitmen hired by the Medellín cartel, bringing his reign as one of the biggest cocaine smugglers of the 1970s and '80s to a bloody end. Learn more about the wild life and death of this daring pilot American pilot Barry Seal smuggled cocaine for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel for years — and then he became an informant for the DEA to help bring them down.

Barry Seal was one of the biggest drug smugglers in America in the 1970s and ’80s. He spent years working for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel, flying tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and earning millions of dollars. But when he was busted in 1984, he decided to double-cross Escobar, and he soon became one of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s most important informants. In fact, it was Seal who provided the DEA with the photos of Escobar that exposed him as a major drug kingpin. When the cartel caught wind of Seal’s betrayal, they sent three hitmen to gun him down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bringing a bloody end to his work as an informant. In 2017, Barry Seal’s life became the subject of a Hollywood adaptation titled American Made, starring Tom Cruise. The film never set out to be a documentary, according to film’s director Doug Liman, who described the blockbuster as “a fun lie based on a true story,” according to TIME. Surprisingly, American Made actually downplayed just how integral an asset Seal was to the DEA — especially when it came to taking down the Medellín cartel.

How Barry Seal Went From Airline Pilot To Drug Smuggler Alder Berriman “Berry” Seal’s life has become somewhat distorted over the years, and it isn’t really a mystery why: such an exciting and controversial story is bound to be reproduced or exaggerated. His humble roots certainly didn’t foreshadow what would become, quite literally, a blockbuster life. He was born on July 16, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was a candy wholesaler and an alleged KKK member, according to Spartacus Educational. As a child in the 1950s, Seal worked odd jobs around the city’s old airport in exchange for flight time. From the get-go, he was a talented aviator, and before he graduated from high school in 1957, Seal had earned his private pilot wings. Ed Duffard, Seal’s first flight instructor, once recalled how Seal “could fly with the best of them,” according to Baton Rouge’s 225 Magazine. He added, “That boy was first cousin to a bird.” Indeed, at age 26, Seal became one of the youngest pilots to ever fly for Trans World Airlines. Despite his successful career, Seal had his eye on more exhilarating endeavors. He soon began using his flight skills for another purpose: smuggling. Seal’s career as a pilot for Trans World Airlines crashlanded in 1974 when he was caught trying to smuggle explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico.

He ultimately escaped prosecution, and some believe this was because he was secretly working as an informant for the CIA, though there is no real proof that he ever worked for the agency. Although Seal’s first foray into smuggling failed, by 1975, he had started trafficking marijuana between the U.S. and Central and South America. And by 1978, he had moved on to cocaine. 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. “He’d work at the drop of a hat, and he didn’t care,” a fellow smuggler later recalled of Seal. “He’d get in his plane and he’d go down there and throw 1,000 kilos on the plane and come back to Louisiana.” Soon, Seal caught the attention of none other than Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel. In 1981, the pilot made his first flight for the Ochoa brothers, a founding family of the cartel. Their operation proved so successful that Seal was at one time considered the biggest drug smuggler in Louisiana state. According to the Washington Post, Seal earned as much as $1.5 million per flight, and by the end, he had accumulated up to $100 million. Seal used his knowledge of aviation to aid in his life of crime. Once he flew into U.S. airspace, Seal would drop his plane to 500 feet and slow to 120 knots to mimic a helicopter on the radar screen of anyone who was watching, as the small aircraft frequently flew between oil rigs and the coast. Within U.S. airspace, Seal would have people on the ground monitor for any signs his planes were being tailed. If they were, the mission was aborted. If not, they would continue on to drop sites over the Louisiana bayou, where duffel bags full of cocaine were tossed into the swamp.

Helicopters would pick up the contraband and transport it to off-loading sites and then on to Ochoa distributors in Miami by car or truck The cartel was happy, as was Seal, who loved evading law enforcement as much as he loved the money. He once said in an interview, “The exciting thing to me is to get yourself into a life threatening situation. Now that’s excitement.” Soon, Seal relocated his smuggling operations to Mena, Arkansas. And it was there, according to The Gentleman’s Journal, that he was arrested by the DEA in 1984 with 462 pounds of Escobar’s cocaine on his plane. Although newspapers published his name after his arrest, Seal was known to the Ochoas as Ellis MacKenzie. With his real name unknown to the cartel, Seal was in the perfect position to avoid prosecution by becoming a government informant — or so he thought. Continue reading