SMUGGLER: Barry Seal

In November 1984, police in Spain arrested Jorge Ochoa. The U.S. Justice Department sent a request to the Spanish government asking that he be extradited to the United States based on his indictment in the Nicaragua case. The U.S. government's star witness was Barry Seal.

As a counter to the U.S. request, the Colombian government also requested Ochoa's extradition back to Colombia. The Colombian government wanted to charge Ochoa with illegally importing fighting bulls.

At a meeting in New Orleans with a roomful of federal officials, Seal signed an affidavit that the Justice Department attached to its extradition request. In the affidavit, Seal provided details of his long-standing drug smuggling relationship with the Medellin cartel.

By signing that affidavit, Barry Seal was agreeing to testify against some of the world's richest, most powerful, and most dangerous criminals.

One of Seal's Baton Rouge attorneys, Lewis Unglesby, said that at the meeting, one of the top Justice Department officials told him Barry was likely signing his own death warrant.

Baton Rouge Assistant District Attorney Prem Burns later said the same thing in court.

"To support the request to extradite Ochoa to Miami, Barry Seal had to swear out an extradition affidavit," Burns said. "When he signed Jorge Ochoa's extradition request, he became a man marked for death."

Within days, the leaders of the Medellin cartel put out a contract on Barry Seal. They offered $1 million for him alive, half a million dollars dead.