ROGER REAVES DOCUMENTARY LICENSE

In 1984, a Washington Times article stated DEA informant Barry Seal had successfully infiltrated the Medellín cartel's operations in Panama and Nicaragua. Also Frederico Vaughan, an associate of Tomas Borges of the Interior Ministry of Nicaragua was photographed with Sandanista Soldiers helping load the plane. Using a concealed camera installed by the CIA, Seal took pictures during the Nicaragua sting operation that clearly showed Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa, and other members the Colombian Cartel loading kilos of cocaine on to a C-123 transport plane. Seal also testified before the President's Commission on Organized Crime in October 1985. Among those Seal testified against were Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands Norman Saunders and members of the Medellín Cartel. In order to mitigate his 1984 arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for money laundering and Quaalude smuggling, he agreed to testify against his former employers and associates in the drug trade, putting several of them in jail. Jacobsen still has the high-tech message encrypter which Seal gave him.' Ernest 'Jake' Jacobson was the DEA agent assigned to Seal during this period. According the Frontline Godfather of Cocaine Investigation, 'Jake Jacobsen was Seal's DEA handler. After some deliberation they decided to use Seal as a high level informant against the Medellín Cartel. and contacted agents in the Vice President's drug task force. He was turned down initially by local prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), agents in Miami.

In order to avoid a long prison sentence, Seal contacted law enforcement authorities. While operating for the Medellín Cartel, Seal went by the alias, 'Ellis Mackenzie.' The operation was very successful until Seal was indicted on conspiracy to smuggle Quaaludes into Florida in 1984. 'All of his aircraft were equipped with the most expensive cryptic radio communications we had ever seen at that time,' said DEA Agent Ernest Jacobsen. This includes the C-123 transport plane which was used famously in the Nicaragua sting operatiion. There he owned and operated many planes and helicopters and advanced radar equipment. The Ochoas with Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez as their leader, headed the Medellín Cartel.Īfter successful runs into his homebase in Louisiana he moved operations to an infamous airport facility in Mena, Arkansas. Once released he met another contract pilot, William Roger Reaves, who agreed to introduce him to the Ochoa family. In 1979 he was arrested in Honduras and spent nine months in jail. Then he began to move cocaine shipments along with his general smuggling business. He initially worked with South American cannabis growers. Seal began his drug smuggling career in 1976 after he lost his job with TWA. He then became one of the largest transportation rings for the cartel in the US. This is according to the Frontline documentary on the 'drug war'. By 1981 he worked mainly for the Ochoa family and the Medellín Cartel transporting more lucrative cocaine shipments. In 1980, he began working for the Ochoa family and the Medellín Cartel transporting more lucrative cocaine shipments.Īfter he made contacts with various Latin American drug producing organizations Seal began to develop his smuggling strategy. He lost his job with TWA and became a private aviation consultant for groups in Latin America, which led to a career in drug trafficking. The buyer turned out to be a Federal Agent and he was arrested. He flew transcontinental flights for TWA until he was fired after he agreed to fly plastic explosives from Miami to Mexico for an anti-Castro group. In 1966, Seal went to work for TWA as a flight engineer and later became the youngest 747 pilot in the nation. He also joined US Army Special Forces to continue flight training. He later was linked through a dated photograph to Operation 40, a covert CIA operation whose members included Tosh Plumlee, Frank Sturgis, future CIA Director Porter Goss and anti-Castro operatives involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

ROGER REAVES DOCUMENTARY LICENSE

In 1955, he received his pilot's license at the age of 16 and joined the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), whose members at the time also included Lee Harvey Oswald and David Ferrie. Seal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and began flying at the age of 15. Adler Berriman Seal (July 16, 1939–February 19, 1986), better known as Barry Seal, was a United States aircraft pilot who flew flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medellín Cartel, among others.

Roger reaves documentary