New DEA Chief Complicit in Mena Drug Scandal, New Book Claims

by Daniel Hopsicker Thursday, May. 24, 2001 at 3:05 PM
TheMadCow@MadCowPress.com 800.556.2012 PO Box 2687 Eugene, OR 97461

Why did Asa Hutchinson, George W. Bush’s new appointee to head the DEA, agree to become the marketing “poster boy" for a company that had just been taken public by a lawyer and close associate of major drug smuggler Barry Seal?

New DEA Chief Complicit in Mena Drug Scandal, New Book Claims

Why did Asa Hutchinson, George W. Bush’s new appointee to head the DEA, agree to become the marketing “poster boy" for a company that had just been taken public by a lawyer and close associate of major drug smuggler Barry Seal?

A new book “Barry & ‘the boys’ The CIA, the Mob, and America’s Secret History,” (in bookstores this fall but available now on the Internet at www.barryandtheboys.com)

claims a principal in Seal’s cocaine smuggling organization, that operated with impunity through Mena, Arkansas while Hutchinson was US Attorney there, was merely paying back a favor.

"Every successful drug smuggling organization needs four things," Miami private investigator Gary McDaniel, an expert in the netherworld where the criminal drug trade and the US Justice system meet, states in the new book... “Production, distribution, transportation, and protection."

Did the Republican Congressman who presented the case to the Senate for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Asa Hutchinson, provide the protection, including "taking care of" an arrest for Seal while he was US Attorney for Western Arkansas?

According to then-Arkansas State Police Commander, Finis Duvall, whose area included Mena, on at least one occasion then-US Attorney Asa Hutchinson ‘took care’ of a Mena legal entanglement for Barry Seal that has never been surfaced in the press.

The book quotes Duvall as stating that the Arkansas State police didn't even try to develop a case against the Mena drug smuggling, because it was well known that it was being 'protected.' "We always knew we couldn't prosecute Barry Seal, no matter what we got on him, because of the politics involved in the Western Judicial District," said the former Arkansas State Police Commander, referring to Hutchinson.

The big secret that was never revealed in either the Iran Contra or the Whitewater Scandals, is the subject of “Barry & ‘the boys’ The CIA, the Mob, and America’s Secret History,” in bookstores this fall but available on the Internet now at www.barryandtheboys.com and amazon.com

Original: New DEA Chief Complicit in Mena Drug Scandal, New Book Claims