He said this plane was owned by Pablo Escobar, who the DEA says is a major partner in Colombia's largest cocaine syndicate. Hidden within it was a secret camera, installed by the Central Intelligence Agency at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Ohio. Although the camera didn't work right, he said, he managed to squeeze off dozens of grainy, shadowy photographs. Most of them show a few men in casual attire lounging against a grassy background. Mr. Seal identified one as Mr. Vaughan, one as Mr. Escobar, the Colombian drug kingpin, and a third as another Colombian drug dealer.
Several pictures show men, whom U.S. officials called soldiers, carrying canvas bags.
Chances of using Mr. Seal to catch members of the Colombian drug cartel vanished. It ruined the case. We hoped to go a lot further with it. Mr. Joura did have time to tell Mr. Seal to round up some Florida distributors and another pilot for a meeting so they could be arrested. U.S. officials have said that the defense minister could be implicated because the drug shipment used a military airfield, Los Brasiles.