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The following text is from a photocopy of a letter that
was originally hand-delivered to U.S. Attorney General
Edwin Meese III by Louisiana Attorney General William
J. Guste, Jr., on March 3, 1986.
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STATE OF LOUISIANA
Department of Justice
WILLIAM J. GUSTE, JR. March 3, 1986 7TH FLOOR
Attorney General 234 Loyola Building
New Orleans 70122-2096
Honorable Ed Meese
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Dear Attorney General Meese:
This is to formally request that the United States
Justice Department undertake a complete investigation with
respect to the government's relationship and handling of
informant Adler B. "Barry" Seal, who was murdered gangland
style in Baton Rouge on Wednesday, February 19, 1986.
"Barry" Seal, as he was know in life, was a former
TWA pilot checked out to fly 747 jets. He went into the
drug smuggling business in the 1970's illegally bringing
first marijuana and then cocaine into the United States -
in ever increasing quantities.
When arrested in 1983 and subsequently convicted,
he was probably one of the biggest drug smugglers ever brought
before a court in the history of our country. By his own
admission, he had flown over 100 flights each bringing in
between 600 and 1200 pounds of cocaine. At a wholesale
volume of an average of $50,000 a pound, he had smuggled
between $3 billion and $5 billion of drugs into the United
States.
His smuggling brought dope to thousands whose
lives have been adversely affected by it. He had brought
enough cocaine into this country to give a "high" to almost
one hundred million users.
And he earned between $60 million and $100 million
by criminal activity.
I, for one, was shocked when I learned of his
death. In October, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Nar-
cotics and Drug Interdiction of the President's Commission
on Organized Crime, I had presided over a seminar at which
Barry Seal had testified.
His purpose there was to inform the Commission
and top United States officials of the methods and equipment
used by drug smugglers. Present at that seminar and question-
ing him in closed session afterwards were: Jack Lawn, Admin-
istrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration; William
Van Raab, Commander of U.S. Customs; Admiral James Gracey,
Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard; Howard B. Gehring, Director
of the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System; Lt.
General R. Dean Tice, Director of the Defense Department's
Task Force on Drug Enforcement; Paul Gorman, former U.S.
Army General and military commander in the Caribbean; and
U.S. Congressman Glen English, D-Oklahoma.
I give this information to establish that he was
a heinous criminal. At the same time, for his own purposes,
he had made himself an extremely valuable witness and infor-
mant in the country's fight against illegal drugs. He had
cooperated with the government in testifying before federal
grand juries, the President's Commission and was scheduled
to be a key witness in the government's case against Jorge
Ochoa-Vasques, the head of one of the largest drug cartels
in the world.
Barry Seal's murder suggests the need for an indepth
but rapid investigation into a number of areas.
WHY WAS SUCH AN IMPORTANT WITNESS NOT GIVEN PROTEC-
TION WHETHER HE WANTED IT OR NOT? Barry Seal refused to
go into the Federal Witness Protection Program. But he
could have been imprisoned in some town in America under
an assumed identity.
Instead he was given sentences in cases against
him in Florida and in Louisiana that permitted him to live
in a Halfway House in Baton Rouge and required him to report
daily to the Salvation Army there. Why did the government
permit this after it was made aware of the fact that Ochoa
investigators had been following Seal and that these inves-
tigators were actually in court at the time his sentence
was announced.
Prior to his death, Seal said that having to report
to the Salvation Army everyday at the same time made him
a "clay pidgeon".
He virtually predicted his assassination.
After he was sentenced to 10 years, why was Seal
given a reduction of sentence under Rule 35 in Florida
cases and set free prior to his completing his agreed upon
task which was to testify against the Jorge Ochoa cartel?
Why did the government expose its main witness
to extermination?
Despite the enormity of his crimes, he actually
served 3 or 4 months in jail and a month in a Halfway House.
Why?
During the time that Seal was cooperating with
the DEA and the Justice Department and acting as an informant,
how was he supervised, regulated and controlled? Was it
done according to the DEA Agents' Manual for dealing with
informants?
Was Seal allowed to travel extensively in the
company of potential violators without surveillance?
Was Seal allowed to work in an undercover capacity
in Arkansas and Louisiana without notification to Louisiana
and Arkansas officials?
How were the contraband drugs he brought into
the United States while cooperating with the DEA regulated
and controlled?
Was Seal's drug smuggling organization allowed
to remain in tact during and after the time of his cooperation
with the government? If so, why?
Was he permitted to keep hundreds of thousands
of dollars which he made while working for the DEA by actually
smuggling drugs into the United States? How was such money
accounted for?
What effort was made under the RICO Statute to
recover the profits and equipment Seal had acquired from
illegal smuggling?
What was the nature of the cooperation between
the state and federal law enforcement agencies in Louisiana
and those in Florida?
The transcript of the testimony in connection
with the Rule 35 hearing before Judge Roettger in Florida
has been held in camera. Now that Seal is dead, cannot
this transcript be made public?
All of these questions, and others that will undoubt-
edly develop, cry for investigation.
And law enforcement agencies and the public have
a right to know the answers.
The answers could very likely tell us how the
government might better protect future valuable witnesses
whether they want protection or not.
The answers might very likely tell us how the
country could better deal with a heinous criminal, despite
his cooperation with the government after he got caught.
I trust this request will receive a positive response.
Sincerely,
W I L L I A M J . G U S T E J R .
WILLIAM J. GUSTE, JR.
Attorney General of Louisiana
WJG, Jr/sl
