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Barry Seal
Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 – February 19, 1986) was an American commercial airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. He was murdered on February 19, 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel. Early life and career Barry Seal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Mary Lou (née Delcambre) and Benjamin Curtis Seal, a candy wholesaler. Seal began to fly as a teenager, earning a student pilot certificate at 16 and a private pilot's certificate at 17. His flight instructor described him as a naturally gifted pilot. In 1962, Seal enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard for six years: six months of active duty, followed by five and a half years of inactive duty. Seal's active duty began in July 1962. He was assigned to the 20th Special Forces Group and graduated from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties in other U.S. states. Since 2020, it has been the 99th-most-populous city in the United States and the second-largest city in Louisiana, after New Orleans; Baton Rouge is the 18th-most-populous state capital. According to the 2020 United States census, the city-proper had a population of 227,470; its consolidated population was 456,781 in 2020. The city is the center of the Greater Baton Rouge area—Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area—with a population of 870,569 as of 2020, up from 802,484 in 2010. The Baton Rouge area owes its historical importance to its strategic site upon the Istrouma Bluff, the first natural bluff upriver from the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. This allowed development of a business ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mena, Arkansas
Mena ( ) is a city in Polk County, Arkansas, Polk County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the county seat of Polk County. The population was 5,558 as of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Mena is included in the Ark-La-Tex socio-economic region. Surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest, Mena is a gateway to some of the most visited tourist attractions in Arkansas. History Mena was founded by Arthur Edward Stilwell during the building of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad (now the Kansas City Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern), which stretched from Kansas City, Missouri to Port Arthur, Texas. Train service to Mena began in 1896. Stilwell named the town in honor of Folmina Margaretha Janssen-De Goeijen, the wife of his friend and financier Jan De Queen, Arkansas, De Goeijen, whom Mr. De Goeijen affectionately called Mena. Janssen Park in the center of Mena is also named for her. Mena was settled in 1896 and incorporated on September 18 of that ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homestead Air Force Base
Homestead Air Reserve Base (Homestead ARB), previously known as Homestead Air Force Base (Homestead AFB) is located in Miami–Dade County, Florida to the northeast of the city of Homestead. It is home to the 482nd Fighter Wing (482 FW) of the Air Force Reserve Command's Tenth Air Force (10 AF), as well as the headquarters of Special Operations Command South. Much of Homestead Air Force Base was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and subsequently rebuilt. History World War II The installation was named Homestead Army Air Field on 16 September 1942 as a base for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and construction began the next day. Homestead opened as an Air Transport Command (ATC) ferry airfield in November; ATC pilots were trained at the base from February 1943 in the C-46, C-54 and C-87 aircraft. The base was heavily damaged by a hurricane in September 1945, resulting in its inactivation on 14 December 1945. When the U.S. Air Force was estab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (14 May 1947 – 15 December 1989), also known by the nicknames 'Don Sombrero' and ''El Mexicano'' ( en, The Mexican), was a Colombian drug lord who was one of the leaders of the notorious Medellín Cartel along with the Ochoa Brothers and Pablo Escobar. At the height of his criminal career, Rodríguez was acknowledged as one of the world's most successful drug dealers. In 1988, ''Forbes'' magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires. Early years José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha was born in May 1947 in the small town of Veraguas, near Pacho in the department of Cundinamarca. He came from a poor family of modest pig farmers, and it is said that his formal education did not extend beyond grade school. He left school in the early 1970s and moved to Muzo, Boyacá, the center of the emerald exploitation in Colombia. There he began to work under Gilberto Molina Moreno, who at the time was called the "star" of emeralds in Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairchild C-123 Provider
The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and then built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, it also went on to serve most notably with the U.S. Coast Guard and various air forces in Southeast Asia. During the War in Vietnam, the C-123 was used to deliver supplies, to evacuate the wounded, and also used to spray Agent Orange. Design and development The C-123 Provider was designed originally as an assault glider aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Chase Aircraft as the XCG-20 (Chase designation MS-8 Avitruc)Gunston 1980a, p. 170. Two powered variants of the XCG-20 were developed during the early 1950s, as the XC-123 and XC-123A. The only difference between the two was the type of engines used. The XC-123 used two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-23 air-cooled radial piston engines, whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tomás Borge
Tomás Borge Martínez (13 August 1930 – 30 April 2012), often spelled as Thomas Borge in United States newspapers) was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of the administrations of Daniel Ortega. He was also a renowned statesman, writer, and politician. Tomás Borge also held the titles of "Vice-Secretary and President of the FSLN", member of the Nicaraguan Parliament and National Congress, and Ambassador to Peru. Considered a hardliner, he led the "prolonged people's war" tendency within the FSLN until his death. In 2010, he stated in an interview: "I am proud to be a Sandinista, to continue being faithful to the red and black flag of our party, to continue being faithful to our revolutionary organization; and to die proud of raising the front, and not having been disloyal to my principles, nor disloyal with my friends nor my companions, nor with my flag, nor with my cries of war." Early life B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tranquilandia
Tranquilandia (literally 'Tranquility-land') was the name of the large cocaine processing laboratory located in the jungles of Caquetá, Colombia. Tranquilandia was constructed for the Medellín Cartel by José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, also known as ''the Mexican''. Until its destruction in 1984 by the Colombian National Police assisted by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA), the complex consisted of 19 laboratories, an independent water (Yari River) and electrical system along with dormitories for the laboratory workers. Processing supplies were flown in, and processed cocaine was flown out via any one of eight airstrips, constructed by the Cartel, for that specific purpose.Cabos sueltos en la muerte de Lara Bonilla – 12/09/20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juan David Ochoa Vásquez
Juan David Ochoa Vásquez (13 April 1946 – 25 July 2013) was a Colombian drug trafficker and one of the founders of the Medellín Cartel, a major drug trafficking cartel based in the city of Medellín. Juan David was the elder brother of Jorge Luis and Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, powerful figures inside the Medellín Cartel."Vasquez, Juan. David. (ca. 1949-present): "The older brother of former drug traffickers Fabio and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez and one ..." by Ron Chepesiuk (1999)''The Colombian Civil War'', p. 220, by Bert Ruiz:"The U.S. tried to extradite Ochoa for drug and murder charges as early as 1984 and was extremely unhappy with the generous surrender agreement given to him." In January 1991, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, together with his brother Jorge Luis, turned themselves in to the Colombian government in order to receive the benefits of collaborating with the judicial system. Juan David Ochoa negotiated a surrender and was imprisoned in a medium security prison outs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabio Ochoa Vásquez
Fabio Ochoa Vásquez (born May 2, 1957) is a former leading member of the Medellín cocaine trafficking cartel, along with his older brothers Juan David and Jorge Luis. His role briefly made him a billionaire. After serving a brief prison term in Colombia, he was arrested and extradited to the US in 1999 and is serving a 30-year term in US federal prison. Early career The youngest of the three Ochoa brothers, Ochoa Vásquez lived in Miami, Florida during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was alleged to have handled thousands of pounds of cocaine. He was indicted by the US government for the first time in 1984, and was allegedly involved in the February 19, 1986 murder of Barry Seal, an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 1987, he and his brothers were included in the Forbes Magazine list of global billionaires, and remained on the list until 1992. The New York Times reported that during this period he was considered the "chief executive" of the family b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez
Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez (born 30 September 1950) is a Colombian former drug trafficker who was one of the founding members of the notorious Medellín Cartel in the late 1970s. The cartel's key members were Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Gustavo Gaviria, Jorge Ochoa, and his brothers Juan David and Fabio. Criminal career Early years and the founding of the Medellín Cartel Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez was the son of Fabio Ochoa Restrepo whose family was in the cattle-breeding and Family-restaurant businesses until they began trafficking with narcotics during the mid-1970s. Standing six feet, 225 lb, Jorge looked very much like a plump, prosperous businessman. He reportedly never uses cocaine and drinks only an occasional glass of wine. He raised prized fighting bulls at his ranch, Los Lamos and collected Harley Davidson motorcycles. In 1976, Ochoa assumed leadership of what was basically an Ochoa family operation. Starting at least in 1978, his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in history, having amassed an estimated net worth of US$30 billion by the time of his death—equivalent to $70 billion as of 2022—while his drug cartel monopolized the cocaine trade into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s. Born in Rionegro and raised in Medellín, Escobar studied briefly at Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellín, but left without graduating; he instead began engaging in criminal activity, selling illegal cigarettes and fake lottery tickets, as well as participating in motor vehicle theft. In the early 1970s, he began to work for various drug smugglers, often kidnapping and holding people for ransom. In 1976, Escobar founded the Medellín Cartel, which distributed powder cocaine, and esta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medellín
Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central region of the Andes Mountains in South America. According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics, the city had an estimated population of 2,508,452 according to the 2018 census. With its surrounding area that includes nine other cities, the metropolitan area of Medellín is the second-largest urban agglomeration in Colombia in terms of population and economy, with more than 4 million people. In 1616, the Spaniard Francisco Herrera Campuzano erected a small indigenous village ("''poblado''") known as " Saint Lawrence of Aburrá" (''San Lorenzo de Aburrá''), located in the present-day El Poblado commune. On 2 November 1675, the queen consort Mariana of Austria founded the "Town of Our Lady of Candelaria of Medellín" (''Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
