Opinion ID: 751138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Undercover Operation Continues

Text: 12 The July 18th arrests did not end Tovar and Martinez's investigation. Shortly after these arrests, while they were still driving back to the DEA's Chicago office, Tovar received a call from the Engineer, who identified himself as Jose Gonzalez and asked whether the transaction had gone well. Tovar told the Engineer that it had and ended the conversation. The Engineer called Tovar four more times within the next three hours, telling him that he could not locate any of his men and asking for Tovar's help. Later that afternoon, Tovar received a call from a new player, who identified himself as Fernando and stated that he was the Engineer's cousin. 3 Fernando asked Tovar whether he would be ready to purchase more cocaine soon, to which Tovar responded affirmatively. In addition, Fernando asked Tovar how he could reach Varela, since Varela was the buyer who gave Fernando's men the cash. Fernando wanted to know what had happened to his people and told Tovar that I'm the boss of all those people who are there by you. 13 Because Fernando had never actually spoken to Varela before, Tovar gave Fernando the number of Special Agent Martinez, who would subsequently assume Varela's undercover identity. Fernando called Martinez, who told him that everything had gone according to plan. Almost immediately thereafter, Fernando called Tovar again, and told him that he knew that Appellant Luna had been arrested and that he believed the other men had been arrested as well. Undeterred by this turn of events, and eager to recoup his lost profits, Fernando told Tovar that he still planned to sell him 500 kilos within the next few days and that he could provide even more if Tovar was interested. 14 Over the next two days, Agent Martinez, still playing Varela's former role, maintained contact with Fernando and told him that he was looking into the arrests of Fernando's men. On July 20, Fernando called Tovar and told him that he had tons of cocaine available and that he would soon put Tovar in touch with some of his representatives in the Chicago area. After a series of telephone calls and discussions, it was decided that Varela, whom the agents had reinserted into the operation with a new identity, would meet with Fernando's associates on August 2. Varela talked briefly with two men, later identified as Defendants Estaban Gonzales and Arturo Rosales. Ensuing telephone conversations between Fernando and Tovar yielded an agreement to deliver 200 kilograms of cocaine the following day. 15 On the morning of August 3, Tovar and Martinez met Defendants Gonzales and Rosales and turned over to them the undercover van. The plan called for the defendants to take the van, load it with the 200 kilograms, and return it to the agents. Rosales told the agents that once he took the van he would call Fernando, and that Tovar would receive a call in about two hours to inform him where he could retrieve the cocaine-laden van. Tovar subsequently received the call and proceeded to the location with Martinez; they found the van parked on the street, with Gonzales and Rosales waiting down the street in another car. The agents drove off and passed Gonzales and Rosales on the way; Tovar told them that everything had gone well. A subsequent inventory of the van's contents revealed 201.2 kilos of 93%-pure cocaine. 16 The agents put an end to the operation on August 4, when the $4,000,000 for the delivery of the previous day was due. Gonzales and Rosales were arrested separately at different locations. Gonzales was arrested near a residential garage in south Chicago that he and Rosales had been using. He consented to a search of the garage, in which agents discovered a box containing over $200,000 in cash. Meanwhile, a team of agents followed Rosales to another house on Chicago's South Side, where he was arrested. The agents executed a search warrant for the house and its garage and found a total of 263 kilos of 96%-pure cocaine.