Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal

The truth behind the CIA/Mena Conspiracy! Notorious Louisiana drug smuggler Barry Seal made countless runs from Central America to the United States, flying thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana into the country and making millions of dollars. When faced with criminal prosecution, Seal turned snitch for the DEA, but he continued to smuggle drugs into the US. In the 1980s, it was leaked under the Reagan administration that Seal was an undercover CIA operative working with the US government to aid Nicaragua in its fight against the Sandinistas. Seal’s role in the conspiracy is large, and many FBI, CIA, DEA, and government officials are implicated in this exposé. Author Del Hahn reveals the true story of this infamous figure.

Marine veteran Del Hahn received a bachelor of science in commerce from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, under the GI Bill. He worked as a parts expeditor for the Euclid Road Machinery Division of General Motors and as a revenue officer for the IRS in Toledo, Ohio, before joining the FBI as a special agent. He is self-employed as a private investigator and lives with his wife, Carolyn, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tom Aswell is an award-winning journalist who worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for twenty-five years. His work has appeared in nine Louisiana newspapers including the Baton Rouge Advocate, the Monroe News-Star, and the Ruston Daily Leader. Aswell writes a political blog called LouisianaVoice, which was named by the Washington Post as one of the top 100 political blogs in the nation. He lives outside of New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Barry Seal, the charismatic narcotics air smuggler of the early 1980s, was daring and elusive. When the federal government declared 'war on drugs,' FBI agent Del Hahn, a former Marine of the Korean War era, joined the battle. Hahn is a longtime friend, and I knew Barry Seal. Smuggler's Endpenetrates the mysteries surrounding Seal, what he did in Mena, Arkansas, and presents the real facts beyond the popular fictional accounts." --William R. "Rut" Whittington, Louisiana State Police colonel/superintendent (retired), US marshal - Western District of Louisiana (retired) "Retired FBI agent Del Hahn provides a behind-the-scenes, inside look at the highly scrutinized life and death of Barry Seal. The book addresses much of the innuendo and many of the myths surrounding the convicted drug smuggler who has been linked to alleged conspiracy theories and has been the subject of much conjecture." --Jay Dardenne, former lieutenant governor, Louisiana "As an investigative reporter who exposed but one small piece of this tale (for Timemagazine) more than two decades ago, I've been waiting for years for such a book. Del Hahn takes no prisoners. He has blown apart the Mena Myth and the scoundrels who perpetuate it. The public should be grateful." --Richard Behar, award-winning investigative journalist Despite countless books on Seal, none have ever been able to definitively prove whether he was a paid informant for the CIA or if he was merely a scapegoat for a larger government plot. Retired FBI agent Del Hahn sets the record straight using case documents and first-person accounts, introducing the world to the real Barry Seal.

Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal had a brief, but spectacular, career as a cocaine smuggler-turned DEA informant. At the height of his career, he was under investigation by the DEA in Mena, Arkansas, and New Orleans, Louisiana, in addition to being under the watchful eye of the FBI. Despite the heat surrounding Seal, he made a drug run to Nicaragua in 1984, where he picked up 1,465 pounds of cocaine and took photos of Sandinista soldiers loading the drugs. Then the Washington Post leaked the story, revealing that Seal was working undercover for the CIA. As a result of the article, Seal has long been identified as an undercover CIA informant. The conspiracy revolving around this supposition included the attorney general, FBI agents, Gov. Bill Clinton, and others inside the CIA. Author Del Hahn, who worked on the FBI drug task force that targeted Seal, presents a different story. Hahn begins by calling into question the accuracy and legitimacy of the primary literary sources that support these "CIA/Mena myths." In doing so, Hahn aims to dispel the distorted stories, rumors, and outright lies about Seal, the government's investigation of him, and the actions that led to his murder by Colombian drug lords in 1986 at a halfway house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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