TEXAS-OWNED PLANE ONCE OPERATED BY INFAMOUS DRUG RUNNER

Colombia cartel paid Adler 'Barry' Seal a reported $1 million for each
flight By C. Bryson Hull Associated Press

HOUSTON - The state of Texas flies a plane that earned its wings at the
hands of famed drug smuggler, government operative and eventual
assassination victim Adler "Barry" Seal.

State officials have flown aboard N6308F, an 18-year-old twin turboprop
that seats up to 10, on official business since Texas bought the plane
in 1990. The Beech King Air is one of 53 in the state's fleet.

Gov. George W. Bush took office five years after the plane became Texas
property and was unaware of its history. "We're glad to hear that the
plane is on the straight and narrow and has landed on the right side of
the law," Bush spokeswoman Linda Edwards said.

Airborne Smuggling

Seal leased the N6308F seven years before Texas brought it to ferry
government officials, according to an Associated Press comparison of
Federal Aviation Administration records with insurance and leasing
documents.

In the early '80s, Seal was a top DEA informant by dint of his work as
airborne smuggler for Colombia's Medellin cartel. He earned a reported
$1 million a flight, hauling guns south and drugs north.

Seal, a former member of the Army's special forces and a one-time Trans
World Airlines pilot, leased and operated the plane for at least a
year, beginning on March 21, 1983, according to a leasing document.

B. Don Wineinger, who handled the insurance policies for Seal while
working for a Kansas insurance firm, verified his signature on the
documents and authenticated the lease.

Many Owners

The plane's owner at the time is unclear. Leasing records show the
lessor as Continental Desert Properties Inc., a California real estate
firm. But FAA title records show the owner to be Systems Marketing
Inc., a now-defunct Arizona computer leasing business.

Continental Desert Properties owner Gene Glick has since died. The
former owner of Systems Marketing was unavailable for comment.

N6308F passed through five other owners before it came to the state,
but belonged for most of the time to a Utah Chevrolet dealer named
Merrill Bean. Of the other owners, three were aircraft brokers and one
was a leasing subsidiary of Greyhound Bus Lines called Greycas Inc.
None, save Bean, owned the plane for more than 30 days.

Violent Death

The State of Texas Aircraft Pooling Board, which owns a fleet for use
on official state business, purchased N6308F in May 1990 from Gantt
Aviation, a Georgetown airplane broker.

Seal, 46, was machine-gunned to death in the parking lot of a Baton
Rouge, La., halfway house on Feb. 19, 1986. Three Colombians were
sentenced to life in prison for the killing, which occurred shortly
before Seal was to testify in the Miami drug trial of Jorge Ochoa, a
top Medellin cartel lieutenant.

Medellin leader Pablo Escobar and Ochoa had offered $500,000 to have
Seal killed and $1 million to have him brought back alive to Colombia,
according to testimony at the trial.

Iran-Contra Connection

This is not the first time one of Seal's planes resurfaced in an
unlikely place.

In 1984, Seal flew his C-123K military transport plane, dubbed "The Fat
Lady," to Nicaragua on an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration
sting operation.

Using hidden cameras installed on the plane by the CIA, Seal snapped
photos showing him taking bags of cocaine from Escobar and a corrupt
Sandinista government official.

President Reagan later used the photos during a nationally televised
plea for support for the Contras.

But the plane that bore those public-relations fruits eventually gave
Reagan fits.

"The Fat Lady" was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986 while
carrying a load of weapons bound for the Contras. That crash and the
Sandinistas' capture of the sole survivor, CIA operative Eugene
Hasenfus, led to the unmasking of the Iran-Contra scandal.