Barry Seal (drug smuggler)
Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (born July 16, 1939 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , † February 19, 1986 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) was a drug smuggler and DEA informant who flew large quantities of cocaine to the United States. He is considered one of the most successful drug smugglers in history. The street sales value of the drugs he imports is estimated by authorities to be between $ 3 billion and $ 5 billion.
Life
Adler Seal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seal developed a passion for flying early on. At the age of 15 he piloted an airplane himself for the first time. Seal initially worked as a flight engineer and later became a pilot . He is considered one of the youngest pilots to have flown a Boeing 707. From 1964 Seal worked for the TWA airline. In 1972 he was dismissed by this on suspicion of smuggling. Seal began flying marijuana into the United States illegally . Seal later switched to transporting cocaine, which he brought to the United States from Colombia and Panama. Here he worked closely with the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellin cartel .
In the further course of his activities Seal moved to its own airfield in the small town of Mena ( Arkansas ). From this point on, he also let other pilots fly for himself and took care of the organization of the drug ring he founded as well as the laundering of the money he received. In 1973 he was arrested for importing a large amount of the drug methaqualone and sentenced to ten years in prison. In order to avoid prison, Seal offered himself to the American anti-drug agency DEA as an informant. This accepted the corresponding offer. His planes were then groomed with cameras and Seal continued to work as a drug courier. Through his cooperation, several former drug trafficking partners were convicted and convicted. Seal also delivered weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua, backed by the USA at the time, and spied on their left opponents, the Sandinista , by taking photos during overflights .
One of the photos provided by Seal showed Sandinista soldiers loading cocaine on an airplane, Pablo Escobar and other members of the Medellin cartel. After the photo was made public, Seal was exposed as an informant through a newspaper article. Thereupon he stopped his further activities. On February 19, 1986, he was shot dead by a Colombian killer squad on the street.
media
- The 2017 film Barry Seal: Only in America, starring Tom Cruise, is based on Seal's life.
- Seal, played by Michael Paré , appears as a minor character in the feature film The Infiltrator .
- In the first season of the Narcos series , Dylan Bruno impersonates the pilot Seal in a brief appearance.
See also
literature
- Daniel Hopsicker : Barry and the boys. Barry Seal, a key figure in American secret history. Two thousand and one, 2005, ISBN 3-86150-727-7
- Gary Webb : Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion , Seven Stories Press, 1999, ISBN 1-888363-93-2
- Robert Parry : Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth". Media Consortium, 1999, ISBN 1-893517-00-4
Web links
- Crack the CIA : Short documentary (2001) about the drug trafficking of the Contras, with a chapter on Barry Seal
- Daniel Hopsicker: CIA Linked To Seal's Assassination The Washington Weekly, August 18, 1997
Individual evidence
- ↑ Claudia Frickel: Spectacular criminal cases: Barry Seals curious story. In: Web.de. January 23, 2018, accessed August 6, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Seal, Barry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Seal, Adler Berriman (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American secret service agent (CIA) and drug smuggler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 16, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Batton Rouge , Louisiana |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 19, 1986 |
| Place of death | Baton Rouge , Louisiana |