IRS investigator Winston Duncan's charged that the 
the U.S. Attorney's office helped cover  up government
sanctioned cocaine imports into Mena.  This became
political fodder for the 1990 Arkansas Attorney General's
race.

"(U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson) knew about it in 
April of 1983 and he sat on it for more than two years,"
said candidate Winston Bryant.

Today Bryant is Arkansas Attorney General, and his current
predicament with Mena is full of ironies.  Bryant's office is
providing the defense for former Clinton bodyguard Buddy
Young, who is being sued by Terry Reed in a trial involving
CIA cocaine operations out of Mena.  Reed's attorneys have
charged Bryant with obstruction of justice for removing Mena
files from his office to circumvent disclosure of those documents
in open court.  I guess the worm has turned.

How dirty is Mena, Mr. Bryant?

Larry
________________

"Hutchinson knew in '83 of Seal probe, ex-IRS agent says"
By  Michael Arbanas
THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE 
September 19, 1990

       A former Internal Revenue Service agent who worked on the
investigation of convicted drug smuggler Barry Seal said Tuesday that
Asa Hutchinson knew in early 1983 that Seal was suspected of using
the Mena airport as a base to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
       Hutchinson, the Republican candidate for attorney general, has
said the investigation was in its early stages when he resigned in
late 1985 to run for the U.S. Senate.
       He said Tuesday that investigators had provided him evidence
only of possible money laundering, but nothing concerning drugs, a
few months before he left office. He said he presented the evidence
to a grand jury, which continued its investigation after he left
office in November 1985.
         Lt. Gov. Winston Bryant, Hutchinson's Democratic opponent, has
criticized Hutchinson for failing to obtain any indictments in the
investigation.
         William Duncan, the former IRS agent, said Tuesday he met with
Hutchinson and William Stepp, a Drug Enforcement Agency investigator,
April 27, 1983 in Hutchinson's Fort Smith office to discuss the
investigation.
         "(Stepp) went into some background and talked about Barry Seal
moving up from Louisiana and his possible involvement in drug
smuggling," Duncan said.
          He said Stepp also told him he had briefed the IRS Narcotics
Task Force at Little Rock about the possibility of drug smuggling
based at the airport.
          Seal began operating out of the Mena airport in 1982 and became
a federal informant in 1984 after being arrested in Florida. He was
killed in 1986.
         Duncan investigated the activities of Seal and his associates
from April 1983 until his transfer to Atlanta in March 1987, he said.
Duncan testified in July 1989 before a congressional
subcommittee that he had been instructed by IRS officials to lie to
Congress about the Seal investigation. He said after the testimony
that the U.S. attorney's office appeared to be stalling in the case.
He said he resigned in June 1989 as a result of the pressure to lie.
         On Sept. 4 , Hutchinson released a copy of a note by Russell
Welch, a State Police investigator, in which Welch writes that
Hutchinson received a list of witnesses from Duncan on Aug. 20, 1985.
        The note, from State Police files, said the investigation would be
 presented to a federal grand jury.
         Bryant has contended that Hutchinson did not pursue the
 investigation vigorously, despite extensive evidence that Seal was
 running a huge smuggling operation out of Mena.
        "He knew about it in April of 1983 and he sat on it for more
 than two years," Bryant said.
         Hutchinson said Duncan did not submit his report on the
 investigation until December 1985, after Hutchinson had resigned. As
 U.S. attorney, he said, he could not actually investigate the case
 but had to rely on investigators from other agencies.
          He said one reason the investigation went so slowly was the long
 time taken by investigators.
          "I pressured them all the time for reports," Hutchinson said.
"I think that's one of the big problems, the need for more staffing
of federal investigators."
          He said the only evidence he had for the grand jury he called in
August 1985 related to money- laundering.