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The Mena File: Barry Seal's Ties to Drug Lords and U.S. Officials
In 1986, Barry Seal—pilot, smuggler, and federal informant—was gunned down when he appeared at the time and place a federal judge had ordered him to. His assassination was blamed on members of a Colombian drug cartel intent on keeping him quiet. But questions about Seal’s relationships with drug cartels as well as high-ranking American officials have mounted since his death, inspiring conspiracy theories, books, and Hollywood thrillers.
Inquiries into Seal’s activities, including some by congressional committees, led nowhere. Many of the police files about him were reported lost; others were almost totally redacted. Nevertheless, hundreds of records have survived regarding this backwater of the Iran-Contra saga, pointing to government complicity in Seal’s shipments of cocaine into the United States and the powerful measures taken to obscure that involvement.
In brisk and meticulously footnoted order, The Mena File guides readers from the airstrip in the mountains of rural Arkansas (where Seal based his operation) to Nicaraguan jungles and then to courtrooms across the American South, culminating in a pivotal meeting in the nation’s capital. Menace lurks throughout the tale and, just as darkly, in the evidence of how law-enforcement agents who labored to bring Seal to justice found themselves undermined—and ultimately betrayed—by elected and appointed officials.
Inquiries into Seal’s activities, including some by congressional committees, led nowhere. Many of the police files about him were reported lost; others were almost totally redacted. Nevertheless, hundreds of records have survived regarding this backwater of the Iran-Contra saga, pointing to government complicity in Seal’s shipments of cocaine into the United States and the powerful measures taken to obscure that involvement.
In brisk and meticulously footnoted order, The Mena File guides readers from the airstrip in the mountains of rural Arkansas (where Seal based his operation) to Nicaraguan jungles and then to courtrooms across the American South, culminating in a pivotal meeting in the nation’s capital. Menace lurks throughout the tale and, just as darkly, in the evidence of how law-enforcement agents who labored to bring Seal to justice found themselves undermined—and ultimately betrayed—by elected and appointed officials.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2016
98 people want to read
About the author
Mara Leveritt
6Ìýbooks132ÌýfollowersMara Leveritt is an Arkansas reporter best known as the author of Devil’s Knot (Atria 2002) and Dark Spell, (Bird Call Press 2013), the first books of her intended Justice Knot Trilogy about three Cub Scouts who were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas and the case of the three teenagers who were convicted of the murders and then, 18 years later--and after pleading guilty--were abruptly set free. A 2013 feature film staring Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Moyer is based on Devil's Knot. Leveritt’s earlier book, The Boys on the Tracks, (St. Martin’s Press 1998, republished by Bird Call Press, 2011) focused on the political intrigue surrounding the still-unsolved murders of two Arkansas teenagers.
Leveritt is a contributing editor at Arkansas Times, where she has written extensively about the prosecution of Tim Howard, an African-American man, for the murder of his best friends, who were white. After Howard spent almost 15 years on death row, a court found that state officials had not released potentially exculpatory evidence to his defense lawyers at trial--a violation of law. A new trial has been scheduled for September 2014.
Leveritt also blogs on her website about law, police, courts, and prisons. She has won several awards for her writing and posts the photo here of herself in cap and gown because she is so unabashedly proud of her honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
As Leveritt is new to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, she has started by adding books that influenced her to her bones.
Leveritt is a contributing editor at Arkansas Times, where she has written extensively about the prosecution of Tim Howard, an African-American man, for the murder of his best friends, who were white. After Howard spent almost 15 years on death row, a court found that state officials had not released potentially exculpatory evidence to his defense lawyers at trial--a violation of law. A new trial has been scheduled for September 2014.
Leveritt also blogs on her website about law, police, courts, and prisons. She has won several awards for her writing and posts the photo here of herself in cap and gown because she is so unabashedly proud of her honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
As Leveritt is new to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, she has started by adding books that influenced her to her bones.
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