Opinion ID: 2632549
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Confidential Informants

Text: Defendants, pointing to a sealed portion of the affidavit that indicated the existence of a confidential informant, fault the affidavit for failing to explain why the investigation could not proceed through that informant. Yet defendants fail to explain how the informant could even have identified the user of Target Telephone # 1, whose identity and location were unknown, without raising suspicion. As the affidavit explained, members of the organization could be alarmed by an informant simply approaching one of them and could become concerned that the organization was under investigations. More generally, the affidavit recited that large-scale narcotics organization are compartmentalized in order to protect the organization and that confidential informants therefore would not be successful in identifying the full nature and scope of the organization. ( U.S. v. Canales Gomez, supra, 358 F.3d at p. 1226.) Under these circumstances, the government could reasonably have concluded that attempting to connect the informant to this part of the organization would have aroused the suspicions of other participants, thus endangering both its informant and the investigation, without providing sufficient information to achieve its goals. ( U.S. v. Carter (D.C.Cir.2006) 449 F.3d 1287, 1294; U.S. v. Guerra-Marez (5th Cir.1991) 928 F.2d 665, 671.)