Opinion ID: 783167
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Operation Wild Card

Text: 4 The primary goal of Operation Wild Card (or the Operation) was the identification, arrest, and conviction of high-level drug traffickers operating in the New York City area. As a secondary goal, the law enforcement agents sought out aliens who were present in the United States illegally or who were engaged in criminal activity. In the Operation, Mercado and Delgado posed as drug dealers who distributed in upstate New York and Canada; O'Connell pretended to be a corrupt INS official who was willing, in exchange for cash, to provide illegal aliens with documents evidencing Permanent Resident Alien status, also known as green cards. Mercado and Delgado dealt with individuals who both brokered green cards for illegal aliens and distributed narcotics. 5 One such broker was Pedro Gonzalez (Gonzalez or Pedro), who eventually led the agents to Ceballos. The general flow of the transactions was as follows. Mercado and Delgado purchased narcotics from Gonzalez; they were to pay him partly in cash and partly in green cards that they would obtain for illegal aliens with the help of the supposedly corrupt INS official. Mercado and Delgado generally charged Gonzalez between $5,000 and $9,500 per card (higher prices were charged for aliens who had criminal records or prior immigration problems), crediting these amounts against the price of the narcotics they received from Gonzalez. Gonzalez received payments from the aliens for the green cards. He obtained narcotics from a supplier, planning to pay the supplier partly out of the cash he received from the aliens and partly out of the cash to be received from Mercado and Delgado upon their resale of the drugs. Gonzalez transported the aliens to a prearranged meeting place, usually a diner near Albany, from where they would be taken to the INS official to begin their green-card processing; on those trips Gonzalez also delivered the narcotics. Mercado and Delgado were to pay the INS official out of the cash generated by the sale of the narcotics they received from Gonzalez. 6 Between June 1999 and June 2000, Delgado, who had responsibility for receiving and processing the delivered drugs, and Mercado, who arranged for the aliens to meet with the INS official, had many dealings with Gonzalez. During that period, Gonzalez brought the agents 36 aliens for processing. Between June 1999 and mid-February 2000, he delivered to Mercado and Delgado 125 grams of cocaine and quantities of heroin ranging from approximately 100 to 544 grams. Delgado would receive the drugs and transfer them to another DEA agent for testing and safekeeping. The aliens would be taken to one of two adjacent motel rooms that housed the Operation. In that room, the supposedly corrupt INS official would fingerprint the aliens, take information relevant to applications for permanent resident alien status, and instruct the aliens on how to answer questions they might be asked by INS officials in the future. In the adjacent room, agents videotaped the fraudulent green-card activity. 7 After Gonzalez had made a delivery of 544 grams of heroin on October 15, 1999, for which Gonzalez charged the agents approximately $40,000, the agents gave him only a small payment and delayed paying the remainder. Their goal was to impede Gonzalez's ability to pay his supplier and to force him to turn to the agents for help in explaining that inability, thereby revealing his supplier's identity. As hoped, Gonzalez looked to the agents for help; as a result, the agents learned that Gonzalez's source for the October 15 heroin was one of the aliens they had processed earlier in October, Euler Soto Gallo. Thereafter, the agents dealt directly with Gallo for the drugs he supplied, and Gallo, like Gonzalez, brought aliens to the agents for green cards. 8 On March 22, 2000, Gonzalez brought the agents six aliens, along with one kilogram of relatively pure heroin that Delgado testified would, after dilution, have a street value of from $800,000 to more than $3 million. Gonzalez and Delgado had previously agreed that the agents would pay Gonzalez a total of $78,000, comprising $75,000 for the heroin and $3,000 as a delivery fee. Mercado learned that Gonzalez had bought the heroin for approximately $58,000. See Tr. 349 (Gonzalez was going to be making about a $17,000 profit.) 9 The agents charged $30,000 for green cards for the six aliens brought on March 22. Deducting that amount from the $78,000 total to be paid to Gonzalez, the agents owed him $48,000. Delgado and Gonzalez had agreed that the agents would have some 7-10 days to make payment, although the balance could be reduced further if Gonzalez brought additional aliens for green cards. The agents again delayed making full payment to Gonzalez, hoping to force him to identify the supplier of these drugs. On April 4, 2000, Delgado and Gonzalez spoke by telephone. Gonzalez said he needed the money to pay his supplier; Delgado responded that he and Mercado had encountered problems in bringing in drug sale proceeds from Canada and had lost some $135,000, forcing them to delay payment to Gonzalez. Although the agents offered to help Gonzalez explain the delay, Gonzalez resisted introducing them to his supplier, whom he described as a man who ran a computer business. During the next several weeks, Gonzalez brought additional aliens for green-card processing and thereby reduced the agents' debt to him from $48,000 to $11,300. 10 On May 11, Gonzalez buckled under the pressure he was receiving from his supplier, and he asked Mercado to speak directly with the supplier to explain why Gonzalez had not been able to pay the rest of the debt. As discussed in Part I.B. below, Gonzalez had his supplier, who was eventually identified as Ceballos, telephone Mercado. 11 A week or so later, Delgado and Gonzalez discussed the possibility of the agents' buying 10-12 kilograms of cocaine at $25,000 per kilo. In mid-June, they agreed that on June 15, Gonzalez would bring several aliens to Albany, and 10 kilograms of cocaine would be brought in another car by one of the supplier's workers. On June 15, Delgado and Gonzalez spoke several times while Gonzalez was waiting for the second driver, whom he identified as his supplier's son. Gonzalez stated that he was going to the home of his supplier, and a New York City surveillance team followed Gonzalez to the home of Ceballos. Delgado testified that, ultimately, the planned June 15 deliveries did not come to pass because Gonzalez 12 had spoken to the father again and ... the father was able to get a hold of the son, the son was okay, but the ten kilograms of cocaine were in a vehicle, the vehicle could not be moved because it was hot, meaning the police was [ sic ] around, so at this point it could not be moved. As soon as things calmed down, it wasn't hot or the police wasn't [ sic ] around, then his son, you know, would be able to finish doing this deal. 13 (Trial Transcript (Tr.) 206-07.) 14 Mercado and Delgado remained in contact with Gonzalez for the next several days, and on June 20, Gonzalez revealed that he had only four kilograms of cocaine for the agents and that the supplier was raising the price. Delgado urged Gonzalez to try to get the remaining six kilograms, and they agreed that Gonzalez would bring aliens, with a second car transporting the cocaine, on June 21. The agents relayed this information to the surveillance team, with instructions to track the second car, intercept it when convenient, and arrest the driver. 15 On June 21, members of the surveillance team observed Gonzalez and five men rendezvous on a street corner in New York City with the second car, whose driver was later identified as Ceballos's son, Sergio Ceballos (Sergio). Gonzalez briefly spoke with Sergio and motioned two of the five men into Sergio's car. Gonzalez and the other three men then returned to Gonzalez's car, and the two cars departed. Sergio's car was soon stopped by the surveilling agents. Four kilograms of cocaine were found in the trunk, and Sergio was arrested. 16 When Gonzalez arrived at the agreed upstate diner later that day to meet with Delgado and Mercado, he was upset because he had lost sight of the car carrying the cocaine. He shortly received a telephone call informing him that the driver of that car, his supplier's son, had been arrested. The call was from the supplier; under repeated questioning from Mercado, Gonzalez confirmed that the supplier was the man they had referred to as the computer guy, whose first name was Gabriel, and who was the supplier to whom Mercado had spoken on May 11. Gonzalez lamented the fact that two of the aliens had been in the son's car because they didn't have anything to do with the cocaine deal. (Tr. 222.) 17 The transactions phase of Operation Wild Card essentially ended on that day. On June 28, 2000, approximately 100 persons were arrested, including Ceballos, who was revealed to operate a computer business. When Mercado heard Ceballos speak, he identified Ceballos as the supplier to whom he had spoken by telephone on May 11.