Mena Airport (MEZ)
What to know
The Mena Airport is notorious for being a hub of illegal drug activity during the 1980s by a pilot and drug smuggler named Barry Seal. The FBI reported that Seal smuggled large quantities of cocaine from South America, would jettison the drugs over drop zones in the Louisiana swamps and fly to Mena to cover his tracks. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency also used the Mena Airport as a base of operations to help train pilots and troops for intervention in the Nicaragua uprising by the Contras in the 1980s. Today, Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport enjoys a calmer existence as a public-use airport owned and operated by the city of Mena.