File: Attachment Size; Liman has referred to the film as "a fun lie based on a true story" (TIME). -Daily Mail Online, "Mena" refers to the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal moved his operation, smuggling in drugs to a clandestine airfield under the nose of then-Governor Bill Clinton. The first is a CIA internal memo on an article written about Mena in 1995. An "extensive joint investigation" by the FBI, Arkansas State Police and IRS revealed that Barry Seal used the Mena airport for "smuggling activity" from late 1980 until March 1984, according to an internal FBI document released last week. Brown says he never saw the bags again. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Seemingly panicked, the White House mistakenly presumed that Brown was talking to ABC News about his involvement with Mena when he was actually discussing Whitewater. "Little Rock [FBI] is attempting to establish that [redacted] modified, maintained and stored Seal's aircraft with the knowledge that he was involved in cocaine smuggling activities prior to Seal's plea bargaining agreement on March 24, 1984," according to the memo. Election Law Update, Heavy Lifting Ne NYC Cleans Voter Rolls Thanks To Judicial Watch. "We're talking about one of the largest drug smugglers in America, and these agents loved him." In another deposition in the Reed case, Russell Welch, an Arkansas state police investigator who has looked extensively at Mena, says that Young asked him in 1992 if Clintons name had ever come up in connection with Mena. Officials at the Arkansas Studies Institute suggested their concerns were legal and financial, associated with vetting the book, but Leveritt wasnt buying it. Browns patience had been strained beyond endurance. I dont want to be getting any more reports from Brown is the statement by Tucker that Colonel Tommy Goodwin, the recently retired head of the Arkansas state police, quoted in explaining the demotion to me in an interview. Brown still has books that Clinton gave him, one being a bar exam study book in which the politician had made some ironic under-linings. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. Yet she pressed on with her writing and finished the book. The New York Times and "West 57th," a CBS television news show, were working on stories about CIA activities at the Mena airport, according to a 1987 FBI memo released last week. -Daily Mail Online, No. He didn't meet Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers in person until 1984, after his arrest when he was working as an informant for the DEA on an undercover operation. var sc_click_stat=1; CIA and DEA activities flowed out of Mena in the Clinton years. The irony is that he might have remained reluctant, but then the White House itself intervened. Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. His daybook records one visit to Mena by Clinton on May 21, 1984, and he says that he accompanied Clinton to Mena on several other occasions. It was originally an Air Force transport plane Seal dubbed it the Fat Lady. Meanwhile, Brown says, he confronted Clinton, asking him if he knew that Seal was dealing in drugs and unreported currency. Barry Seal's widow, Debbie Seal, and others have wondered why the government didn't do more to protect Seal, whether he wanted the protection or not. "Prior to his death, Seal admitted to smuggling large quantities of cocaine from South America (Columbia) to United States and testified before Senate investigative committee," according to the FBI memo, which referred to a telephone call between agents in Little Rock and Miami. Evidence emerged suggesting that the CIA was operating in the area in the early 1980s; that a major cocaine and gun smuggler was based at the airfield; and that the U.S. military was somehow involved. During the past few years, the activity at the airstrip has aroused the interest of local law enforcement, who then attempted to conduct some investigations but were blocked by the U.S. There were no local dignitaries present, Bender says, and Clinton did not seem to be taking part in any official function. The mysterious events surrounding Mena Airfield in remote western Arkansas during the gubernatorial reign of Bill Clinton have teased the popular imagination for more than three decades. Welsh said it had not, but Youngs concern was intriguing. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." "There are also allegations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used the airport as a base of operations to help train pilots and troops for the intervention in the Nicaraguan uprising by the Contras during the 1980s," according to the encyclopedia entry, which was written by Robert Sherwood of Georgia Military College. The memorable scene never happened in real life. However, her real name is Debbie, not Lucy. Brown recalls that on the morning of this particular flight, Seal had told him to drive to Mena Intermountain Regional Airport, a remote air strip near the Oklahoma border. Email Address: v EVIO @gmail.com +2 emails. In 1986, he was convicted of drug distribution, and lost his state securities license. Clinton appeared to have pressured Hale, the head of an Arkansas lending agency, into making loans to Susan McDougal, the Clintons Whitewater real estate partner. commission charbonneau liste de noms. In the 1980s the smallairportin Arkansas known as Mena became part of the largest covert operation in history. She was an experienced writer and had prepared for the legal review. The White House saw the pictures as proof of the communist Sandinista government's corruption and believed that the photos would help to convince the public of the need to support and arm the rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua. "It's my understanding that no drugs ever came to the airport," said Fred Ogden, the current airport manager. Brown says Seal told him theres good money to be had. But Brown, says he was out of that game for good. Approximately 30 minutes later, Brown says, the C-123K landed in what he later learned what Tegucigalpa, Honduras. "At the time Seal started cooperating with DEA Miami, he had an established base at Rich Mountain Aviation and had frequent contact with subjects," according to the document. But Brown says he is lying. . In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. Executing secret missions for the government in the movie might add a sort of patriotism and redeeming quality to his character, but in real life Barry Seal was a drug smuggler first and foremost. alan dershowitz cost per hour; what is pak po chicken; sonamukhi powder benefits; He said, according to Brown, Thats Lasaters deal, thats Lasaters deal.. (NWA Media). FITTON: #TwitterFiles EXPOSE FBI & CIA Election Interference! "At the time Seal started cooperating with DEA Miami, he had an established base at Rich Mountain Aviation and had frequent contact with subjects," according to the document. The accident didn't happen during filming. -Daily Mail Online, No. attorney.". He suspected a CIA involvement, although his brother did not confirm it. Eight months later, Seals C-123 was shot down over Nicaragua with a load of ammunition and supplies for the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels. In real life, his first encounter with the Medelln Cartel happened less dramatically. The book was killed at the last minute. Seal's Drug Enforcement Administration file also supports this, noting that he was smuggling marijuana as early as 1976, then adding cocaine to his resume in 1978. I started it and pursued it but was unable to complete it because I left the office. Basically, Seal would fly over the guns and smuggle back drugs on his return trip. After a barrage of requests from different people and media outlets under the federal Freedom of Information Act, on Wednesday the FBI released more than 1,000 pages of its file on Seal: vault.fbi.gov/recently-added. After it left Mena, the plane made a refueling stop Nobody got off, Brown says and then resumed flight. Reprints and media inquiries: [emailprotected]. They married in 1974. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. He then, he says, signed a secrecy agreement, and was told he would be contacted further. Many names in the documents have been redacted. As part of the application process, Brown had written an essay: Marxist Influence in Central America. Doug Liman had previously modeled Chris Cooper's villain in The Bourne Identity after North, which reveals Liman's feelings about the controversial figure North. After Brown told Sealand Clintonthat he would no longer take part in the drug flights, Seal contacted Brown again. Other photos like the one below show Federico Vaughan (center, striped shirt), a man that Seal claimed was a top aide of Tomas Borge, the Sandinista Minister of the Interior. Seal Texaco.located corner Acadian Thruway andGoverment Street ,Baton Rouge La.Father Benjamin C Seal and the Sons Benjy Jr,Dean ,Jason ,Aaron, Curtis R,Wendell K, work the gas . In researching the American Made true story, we learned that Barry Seal was arrested by customs officers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983 as he tried to smuggle 200,000 units of Quaalude, a recreational drug, into the country. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. Copyright 2023, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Connor Hagan, a spokesman for the FBI in Little Rock, said the release of so much information into the FBI's public "vault" doesn't mean that the documents haven't previously been made public. I guess he also thought Colombians would stick out like a sore thumb in Louisiana and they wouldn't come here." Seal's mysterious activities have spawned books, movies and a cornucopia of conspiracy theories. But there were still questions regarding the Mena airport and people who worked there, according to the FBI memo. He also says he told Seal he wanted no part of what was happening; then he left. -Vulture. When asked how, he replied, "Oh, Barry stole an airplane from me. How much did Clinton know about what he called Lasaters deal in that conversation with L.D. Mena, Arkansas, as a staging point for weapons supply flights. On one CIA-involved mission in 1984, a secret camera in Seals C-123 cargo plane snapped photos of an alleged Sandinista official loading cocaine aboard the aircraft. Dwayne Brown says he knew his brother had made some unexplained trips out of the country. Its now referred to as theIran-Contrascandal. The photos quickly leaked, boosting Washingtons anti-Sandinista effort but likely putting a target on Seals back: to his drug-running friends in South America, there could be no question where the photos came from. According to a 1988 Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, Seal's associates at the Mena airport were also being investigated. Buddy Young that little beady-faced fellow, and said he was with Clinton at Mena. In another deposition in the case, John Bender, a mechanic, says he saw Clinton at Mena three times in the summer of 1985. Seal flipped, becoming a valuable government informant. BARRY SEAL: He imported drugs and laundered money while working for the federal government. I mean I didnt have a chance to tell him anything about it. On Watch: The #COVID19 Crisis on our Southern Border the Media ISN'T Coveri On Watch: Marxism & the Current Insurrection in America. Barr opposed the independent counsels investigation of wrongdoing in the White House and facilitated Bushs famous1992 Christmas Eve pardonsof six of the co-conspirators of Iran-Contra. . And while Clinton would later correctly note that events at Mena were primarily a matter of federal jurisdictionmeaning that Republicans probably had more to lose than Democrats if the truth was exposedits also true that a Clinton friend and supporter named Dan Lasater was under investigation for drug smuggling at the same time Seal was operating in Arkansas. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-17438127-1']); She says that she thought he was an airplane broker and also that he rented out old anti-aircraft lighting for various promotional events. In the 1980s, the Mena airport was the reported base of a drug-smuggling, money-laundering and arms-smuggling ring run by Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, according to an Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry on the airport. Miguel Velez was the man driving the getaway car. Hadaway said an informant told him a "narcotic smuggling operation" was headquartered out of the Mena airport and that a man named Barry from Baton Rouge was in charge of it. Brown was 28 years old in 1984. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. At the time Seals flights took place, Lasater was contributing to Clintons political campaigns. Browns role, after all, was quite limited. They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The Ochoa Family, along with Pablo Escobar and others, were the founders of the Medelln Cartel. On Watch: CROSSFIRE HURRICANE Targeting of Trump from A to Z. A C-123K cargo plane, like this one, was out tted at the Mena airport and ew with various cameras to obtain photographic evi- dence of the Sandinistas in the act of smuggling narcotics, according to an entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo). Patterson was being deposed in a legal suit filed against Buddy Young, the former head of Clintons security detail, and another man by Terry reed, who says he trained Contra pilots, under Seals supervision, at Nella, Arkansas. "Despite the availability of evidence sufficient for an indictment on money laundering charges, and over the strong protests of state and federal law enforcement officials, the cases were dropped," according to the report. In essence, not only was the airport used to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States, but it was also a departure point for weapons used to arm the Contras in Nicaragua.". Yes. Back at Mena, Brown says, he and Seal waled to Browns car, a Datsun hatchback, and Seal put one of the duffel bags under the hatchback. The Louisiana attorney general would tell the Justice Department that Seal had smuggled between $3 billion and $5 billion in drugs into the U.S.. -Refinery29, Yes. foundations, and corporations and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. No, in real life he had five children and was married three times. Seal was shot dead in 1986 at a safe house in Baton Rouge . Later Brown would come to know them as kickers. Asa Hutchinson was U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Western District in the early 1980s. In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. us. : Then the plane dropped to what Brown calls an altitude a hell of a lot lower than what youd think youd fly. He suspected Seal was trying to evade radar. The second is the article they reference. Hagan said he didn't know how many pages of material on Seal have yet to be made public by the FBI. One mission involved a C-123K cargo plane that was outfitted at the Mena airport. pennymac insurance claim check tracker. BEST OF: Left Targets Elon Musk, FBI Investigated Fauci Agency, CA Court Vi BEST OF: Twitter Changed Rules to Ban Trump! Three Colombians eventually were arrested and convicted of the murder. Gov. Thats when he said, You having any fun yet.. Seal, Brown says, had also prescribed the dress code, and insisted that no one carry identification, not even keys or jewelry. All rights reserved. var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; However, when a drug shipment was seized by the DEA, the Medellin Cartel blamed Seal for the loss. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. Lasater went to jail for a cocaine connection, as did his friend, Roger Clinton, Bill Clintons brother. MENA NOIR: Aircraft pilot Barry Seal, a Baton Rouge native who smuggled drugs into the U.S. for the Medellin Cartel during the 1980s, used this airport in Me. "The DEA agents who worked with Barry loved him," said director Doug Liman. Money from the sale of weapons to Iran was used to help fund the rebels in Nicaragua. A Seal associate cut a runway deep in the woods. "The original information dates back to the activities of a pilot, Barry Seal (now deceased), who is purported to have flown guns to South America from Mena and drugs back into the United States," according to the memo. "The aircraft flew with various cameras used to obtain photographic evidence of the Sandinistas in the act of smuggling narcotics," Sherwood wrote. Under the disguise of an aircraft refurbishing center, Mena was an arms and drug smuggling ring working for President Ronald ReagansContrawar against theSandinistas. Set in the year 1978, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) works as a pilot for Trans World Airlines. As early as 1982, his firm had been censured by the Arkansas security commissioner for cheating customers. Jacoby mentioned Seal's mission as evidence, which effectively outed Seal as a government agent. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. The is the latest repackaging of allegations previously made by the Wall Street Journal. But when he asked his brother, Whos pushing this his brother, Dwayne Brown says, nodded over towards the Governors Mansion. From then on, until he left Clintons security detail in June, Dwayne Brown says, his brother was at a high level of despair. He says he had feared he might be suicidal. Yes. jewish british actresses; how old is meryl lipstein The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. If he had in fact been working for the CIA at the time, his connections didn't get him off the hook. Brown, a narcotics cop, got upset. These are the equivalent of Barry Seal in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell covert operation. The CIAs inspector general investigated and released a terse statement saying no evidence has been found that the CIA was associated with money laundering, narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling or other illegal activities at or around Mena. There was, however, a classified two-week exercise and some contracting for routine aviation-related services.. Bill Duncan, an IRS investigator, told me that he had numerous reports of automatic weapons fire, men of Latin American appearance in the area, people in camouflage moving quietly through streams with automatic weapons, aircraft drops, twin-engine airplane traffic. Duncan, along with Arkansas State Police investigator Russell Welch, started digging into Seal and the Mena connection, suspecting a drug smuggling and money laundering operation. Strange events unfolded at Mena, a small city in remote western Arkansas, in the 1980s. In February 1986, Seal was killed in a hail of machine-gun fire outside a Baton Rouge Salvation Army halfway house after allegedly crossing Pablo Escobar and the Medellin drug cartel. He had expected to find, he says, a Baron or King Air, the kind of plane in which he sometimes accompanied the Governor, and in which he had some training as a pilot. He later claimed to have made as much as $50 million running 1,000 pounds of cocaine a month from Colombia. Back at Mena, Brown says, he told Seal he had thought they were going to fly in a plane similar to the ones he had been on with the Governor. Yes. JB is fictional. The movie's title was changed to put less emphasis on the Arkansas connection, including the possibility that Bill Clinton was aware of what was going on. The CIA does not talk about these things, and so Browns exact relationship with the agency may never be known. I was young and it was impressive." In the years that followed his split from Clinton, Brown investigated white-collar crime for the Arkansas State Police. But there were still questions regarding the Mena airport and people who worked there, according to the FBI memo. After Barry spoiler . Judicial Watch: Fighting for Clean Elections. Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. Were taking other steps, tooFreedom of Information actions against the DEA, FBI, and Arkansas state institutions. No investigation was blocked.". Arkansas State Trooper L.D. The FBI in Little Rock began investigating Seal's operation at the Mena airport in February 1984, according to the recently released FBI document. var sc_project=5585388; "I initiated a grand jury investigation in relation to money laundering through the Mena airport in 1985," Hutchinson said Friday. Using pilots like Barry Seal was a means to an end. Big Tech Protected Joe Biden o BEST OF: Big Tech Censorship EXPOSED! AboutPressCopyrightContact. Subsequently, the special prosecutor investigating Whitewater subpoenaed Brown to disclose what he knew about Clintons connections to David L. Hale. No other name is perhaps more associated with the Iran-Contra affair than Oliver North, but his involvement in exposing Barry Seal's mission and blowing his cover is unknown and entirely speculation. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal, Yes. Over a quarter of a century ago, George H.W. Three early drafts of the essay contain interpolations in Clintons handwriting. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP . Brown says Clinton told him not to worry. Yet, it's also certainly possible that Seal had no involvement with the CIA in the early 1980s at all, given there is nothing to support the claim but rumors. Barry met Debbie while he was on his way to a hearing after he was caught in 1972 trying to smuggle military explosives out of the country. "Prior to his death, Seal admitted to smuggling large quantities of cocaine from South America (Columbia) to United States and testified before Senate investigative committee," according to the FBI memo, which referred to a telephone call between agents in Little Rock and Miami. Concurrently, they had to make sure not to raise the suspicions of the ruthless Colombian drug lords. Then both men got into the front set of the car, and Seal reached into the duffel bag, and pulled out a manila envelope with $2,500 in it. The New York Times and "West 57th," a CBS television news show, were working on stories about CIA activities at the Mena airport, according to a 1987 FBI memo released last week. Scared the s---- out of me just taking off. Brown says that when the plane took off, he was sitting on a bench behind the two pilots. In total, he had illegally imported $3 to $5 billion worth of drugs and an estimated 56 tons of cocaine into the U.S., making over 100 flights. He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. (function() { For a portion of this time, the alleged ringleader of the drug smuggling, Seal, appeared to have been working with the CIA and the Drug Enforcement Agency. -The Independent, In the movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) starts working for the Medelln Cartel after they abduct him while he is refueling his plane and then make him an offer he can't refuse. Advertisement. Bill Clinton's Mena, Arkansas drug smuggling and money laundering operation through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA).. Seal was a Green Beret in the Vietnam war and later a pilot for TWA. Last March, in a legally binding deposition, trooper Larry Patterson also said that Clinton knew about Mena. Msg&data rates may apply. When Bill Clinton became president, Mena got a closer look. Barry arrived that evening at approximately 6 p.m. and backed his white Cadillac into a parking space. And the U.S. was covertly backing the Contras. In court documents, the family alleged that "lapses in planning, coordinating, scheduling, and flight safety" contributed to the fatal crash in the mountains of Colombia. "I've heard that stated by a lot of people.". The name of another person under investigation was redacted. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot's license at age 15 and pilot's license at 16. Walker said a huge dark-green military plane was parked there, and that when he expressed surprise at seeing a military plane at Mena, Clinton said it was not military; it served another purpose. In fact, I still had a letter from the former director advising me, in case Id planned to make copies, that the file held some 3,000 pages.. "Doug and I are both aviators, so we both love to fly.". Tips: [emailprotected], Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. As stated in the previous question, there is no strong evidence to confirm that Barry Seal was working with the CIA prior to becoming an informant after his arrest in 1983. Many of the more baroque allegations emerge from the fever swamps of conspiracy theorists, but certain facts are indisputable. Judicial Watch Victories: Courts Declare California Quota Laws Unconstituti BEST OF: Top Anti-Corruption Victories in 2022. _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); In 1994, Brown told Daniel Wattenberg of The American Spectator that Jim Guy Tucker, then the Arkansas governor had asked him and trooper Larry Patterson for compromising information on Clintons private life in 1990, when Tucker was contemplating a race for governor. Barry Seal "'Fat Man' key to mystery" By Michael Haddigan THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE June 26, 1988 Allegations of cocaine smuggling and international intrigue swirled about the Mena Airport and Seal for years. Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. It was dark almost black, and had only the minimal tail markings necessary for civilian operation. FITTON: Heavy Lifting Needed By Congress on Corruption! Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. Three Colombians eventually were arrested and convicted of the murder. Contributions are received from -Vulture.com Barry Seal was a ballsy and confident risk taker, who rarely acknowledged the possibility of failure, and that's just how Tom Cruise portrays him in the American Made movie. Young has since been made head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in Denton, Texas. He relocated to a small regional airport in Mena, Arkansas, which had a population of only 5,000. Seal made an estimated $60 million off smuggling drugs into the country and became one of the richest people in America. View Alex Mena results in Phoenix, AZ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Clinton also suggested that Brown study Russian, a suggestion Brown took seriously enough to begin making entries in his daybook in Cyrillic. In 1996, House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach pressed the CIA for answers about its role at Mena. -Court DocumentsThe 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. Vincent G Mena, Age 54. Barry Seal was an American-born Trans World Airlines pilot who . The CIA stonewalled the release of information now sought by Judicial Watch on the Mena Airport controversy, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Because no one The real Barry Seal claimed that he started running covert operations for various government agencies as early as the late 1950s, while he was a member of the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans, well before he became a TWA pilot. Then it was refueled while Sale and the kickers got off. He was not only Gov. Frankly, it will never be revealed. Seal, a government informant, was murdered outside a halfway house on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. "You know, we're not making a biopic," said director Doug Liman. Whatever the case, of all the Arkansas troopers who would later admit to knowledge of Clintons high life, Brown was the most hesitant to talk. Dan Lasater, of course, was the celebrated Little Rock bond daddy. His cooperation led to many convictions, as well as indictments against Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa, two of the founding members of the Medelln Cartel. var sc_partition=60; Weinberger faced charges of lying to Congress about his knowledge of the arms and drug smuggling that President George W. Bush had endorsed. Yes, at least according to his wife and others who knew him. forgave the taxes on hundreds of millions in known drug and gun profits over the ensuing two-year period when Seal was officially admitted to be employed by the government. Steal $20 Mil in U.S. COVID Relief Funds. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. "I can state absolutely that Oliver North had nothing to do with my story as far as I knew, or as far as I know today," said Jacoby. _qacct="p-571RmQ-B866HQ";quantserve(); She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. Although, the truth, as it happened has never been revealed to the public. The arrests never happened since Seal's cover was blown. "The apparent reason was that the prosecution might have revealed national security information, even though all of the crimes which were the focus of the investigation occurred before Seal became a federal informant.".