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→Mena, Arkansas
Staff writer Gary Webb for the ''San Jose Mercury News'' published a series of articles detailing that at the time Seal was operating a [[San Francisco]] Bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to [[Los Angeles]] street gangs and funneled profits to Contra groups affiliated with the Mena operation. According to Webb, the CIA had thwarted repeated attempts to prosecute the ring's kingpin possibly to cover-up ties between traffickers and Contra leaders.<ref>''Dark Alliance, the CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion'', Seven Stories Press, New York, 1999. </ref>
Staff writer Gary Webb for the ''San Jose Mercury News'' published a series of articles detailing that at the time Seal was operating a [[San Francisco]] Bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to [[Los Angeles]] street gangs and funneled profits to Contra groups affiliated with the Mena operation. According to Webb, the CIA had thwarted repeated attempts to prosecute the ring's kingpin possibly to cover-up ties between traffickers and Contra leaders.<ref>''Dark Alliance, the CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion'', Seven Stories Press, New York, 1999. </ref>
A later CIA inspector general's declassified report admitted the CIA had been at Mena for routine aviation related services, and that L.D. Brown, an Arkansas State policeman assigned to security at the governor mansion and Governor Bill Clinton's driver, had been a candidate for CIA employment in 1984 at the suggestion of Bill Clinton. The report also stated the CIA installed cameras on his plane had limited contact with Seal.
Arkansas state police investigator Russell Welch supplied US Attorney Asa Hutchinson with a list of 20 witnesses that included Barry Seal and officers of Rich Mountain Aviation in Mena, but Hutchinson only subpoenaed two of the 20 witnesses to the [[grand jury]] and they complained that Hutchinson asked nothing about the crime.
Arkansas state police investigator Russell Welch supplied US Attorney Asa Hutchinson with a list of 20 witnesses that included Barry Seal and officers of Rich Mountain Aviation in Mena, but Hutchinson only subpoenaed two of the 20 witnesses to the [[grand jury]] and they complained that Hutchinson asked nothing about the crime.