Judicial Watch Sues CIA for Inspector Generals Report on Mena, Arkansas, Airport CIA Drug, Arms Smuggling Allegations during the Reagan administration to smuggle arms to rebels in Nicaragua
Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA seeking the CIA Inspector Generals November 1996 report related to a drug-running, arms smuggling and intelligence operation involving Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport in Arkansas.
The airfield in Mena was alleged to have been used in the 1980s by the CIA during the Reagan administration to smuggle arms to rebels in Nicaragua. A central figure in the operation was Barry Seal, a pilot and drug smuggler for Pablo Escobars Medellin cartel who became an undercover agent and informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
In November 1996, then-CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz absolved the CIA of involvement in the operation.