SMUGGLER: Barry Seal

Barry Seal lost his appeal of the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola.

On January 24, 1986, Seal, who had previously refused to enter the witness protection program because of the effect it would have on his family, pleaded guilty again before the same judge and got the same sentence: five years probation, a $35,000 fine, and six months in a local halfway house.

The judge was clearly unhappy that he had to sentence Seal to probation, despite the glowing reports he had gotten from DEA agents. "Drug dealers like Mr. Seal are the lowest, most despicable people I can think of," Polozola said. "I don't see a single, solitary reason why anybody should make Seal a special individual ... I don't see any reason for coddling him." The judge looked at Seal. "In my opinion, people like you ought to be in prison."

The next day Barry moved into a cramped room at the Salvation Army center on Airline Highway, where he had been ordered to stay from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Monday through Friday. He had weekends off but had to be back at the halfway house by 10 o'clock Sunday night. While there, he could have no visitors, not even family.

For a three-time convicted drug smuggler, the judge's sentence was a pretty good deal; but for a man with a half-million dollar price on his head, who was the target of some of the most ruthless and violent men in the world, it was tantamount to a death sentence.

"There was a contract out on him and everybody knew it," said Miami DEA agent Billy Yout. "He was a crucial witness in the biggest case in DEA history."

Judge Polozola refused to allow Seal to hire his own bodyguards. Seal had been using private security guards to protect his family at his Baton Rouge home for a long time.

Seal's family was upset with the sentence. "When I saw him sentenced to that halfway house, I knew he was a dead man," said Ben Seal, Barry's younger brother.

After Seal's murder, federal prosecutor Stanford Bardwell, who went to high school with Barry, said the sentence had been fair. "He was a drug smuggler, and he profited from the importation and distribution of the worst poison that this country has had foisted on it," Bardwell said. "He did perform a service for the system, but we at least felt he should have done some minimal jail time. Of course, he didn't deserve to die."