The following morning, the Fat Lady landed at Homestead Air Force Base near Miami. The DEA seized the cocaine and the CIA took the camera film. The mission had been a success. The photos showed Barry, Pablo, Vaughan and Gacha loading twenty-five-kilo duffel bags.
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With Barry's mission complete, George HW Bush had him assassinated through the CLA, which used Colombian hit men, so the blame could be put squarely on the Medellín Cartel - documented in my book, American Made. Following his successful mission to Nicaragua, Barry had felt so let down by George HW Bush that he'd threatened to blow the whistle on the cocaine he'd been transporting to Mena, Arkansas for the CIA, and he'd also boasted that he had videotape evidence of Jeb and George W Bush getting caught in a DEA sting operation.
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On March 16, 1986, one month after Barry's death, Ronald Reagan went on TV with Barry's photos. "I know every American parent concerned about the drug problem will be outraged to learn that top Nicaraguan government officials are deeply involved in drug trafficking. This picture, secretly taken at a military airfield outside Managua, shows Federico Vaughan, a top aide to one of the nine commandants who rule Nicaragua, loading an aircraft with illegal narcotics bound for the United States." Reagan was attempting to drum up support for the provision of weapons and training for Nicaraguan rebels on the basis that the Nicaraguan government was involved in trafficking cocaine, which was killing young people in America. Even though they didn't know that the opposite was true that the Nicaraguan rebels were trafficking cocaine with the help of the CIA - the public wasn't swayed.
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The DEA knew that Reagan had lied. Furious over the death of Barry Seal - who'd been one of their key operatives and was on the verge of helping them take down the Medellín Cartel, which would have been the biggest drug arrests in history - the DEA stated that it had no information implicating "the Minister of the Interior or other Nicaraguan officials." It seems that Barry had embellished the Nicaraguan government's involvement in cocaine to try to curry favour with George HW Bush. After Reagan showed the grainy photographs on TV of Pablo in Nicaragua loading drugs onto Barry's plane, Pablo told his brother that he couldn't possibly have been in that photo because he never loaded drugs onto planes. Maybe the ClA had doctored the photos.
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With the Reagan-Bush administration hyping-up the crack epidemic for political gain, the US authorities increased their efforts to extradite Pablo. Eight different agencies were pursuing him, including the DEA, US Customs, the Coast Guard, federal police, state police and the military, none of which put a dent in the supply of cocaine to America, which tumbled in price from $40,000 a kilo to $9,000.
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In April 1986, Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 221, which classified drug trafficking as a threat to national security. In retaliation, traffickers targeted the staff at the American embassy in Bogotá, and a $350,000 contract was put out on the head of the DEA. Car bombers repeatedly attacked the buildings occupied by Americans. Family members of
diplomats and DEA agents fled Colombia.
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Pablo had wanted to make Panama a temporary hub, but Noriega hadn't embraced the idea. The agreement had been to make Panama a transportation point, not an operations centre. Pablo got word from a Panamanian Colonel that Noriega was making overtures to the DEA. For the benefit of the cartel, Noriega had authorised the construction of a cocaine lab in Panama, but his military seized 16,000 barrels of ether destined for the new lab and arrested twenty-three Colombian workers. The angry cartel leaders demanded an explanation, but were told that Noriega was in Europe.
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Through President Fidel Castro, a meeting was arranged for the Colombians and Noriega in Cuba. Before Noriega arrived, the cartel attended a preliminary conference with the Panamanian government. After the meeting, Noriega released the Colombian prisoners and returned $3 million in cash and lab equipment to the cartel.
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Growing homesick and distrustful of Noriega, the cartel tried to reach an agreement with the Colombian government, whom they asked to consider the possibility of their re-incorporation into Colombian society in the near future. They denied any responsibility for the assassination of Lara Bonilla. Their memorandum offered a history of drug trafficking in Colombia and asserted that their organisations "today control between 70 and 80 percent of Colombia's drug traffic," which equated to "an annual income of around $2 billion." Pablo offered to move billions from overseas accounts into the Colombian banking system and to dismantle the cocaine empire, but the deal was refused.
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On June 15, 1984, the cartel lost 1.2 metric tons of cocaine packed in freezers and perfume cartons to US Customs agents in Miami. A Panamanian charter company owned the cargo jet transporting the cocaine. The next week, Panamanian authorities confiscated 6,159 drums of ether.
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Pablo advised his fellow Colombians to leave Panama. Private planes and helicopters arrived. The Colombians dispersed to Medellín, Brazil and Spain. According to Roberto, Pablo and his brother went to Nicaragua. Pablo took 1,100 kilos of cocaine with him, aiming to convert it into cash.
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Even though extraditions to America had begun, things had settled down a bit in Colombia since the aftermath of Lara's death. The majority of those who'd been arrested in the raids following Lara's death, including Fabio Ochoa Sr, had been released due to a lack of evidence and the usual corruption.
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Giving an interview from abroad, Pablo said "People who know me understand very well that I am involved in industry, construction and ranching the fact that I attack extradition does not make me extraditable."
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Lehder had managed to evade capture, and was still issuing statements: "I am a symbol of those men who battle imperialism. In this struggle, the end justifies the means." In 1984, his political party, Carlos Lehder's National Latin Movement, won two seats and four city council seats.
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The pressure on the authorities from the traffickers had never relented. They had obtained the president's private telephone number - which had spooked the president and were issuing threats.
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