Opinion ID: 19
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Underlying Drug Trafficking Investigation

Text: The facts that underlie this appeal arise from a DEA investigation into alleged drug trafficking activities conducted by several police officers assigned to the Caguas Tactical Operations Unit of the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD). On the basis of information provided by a confidential source around December 2000, DEA agents John F. Kanig and Aramis Quiñones (Quiñones) learned that PRPD officer Roberto Martínez-Hernández (Hernández) was dealing large quantities of drugs. The investigation also revealed that another police officer, Alexis López-López (López-López), was supplying heroin to Hernández. From January to March 2001 and at the behest of the DEA agents, the confidential source conducted two separate heroin purchases from Hernández. The DEA agents also established direct contact with Hernández through an undercover agent, Nelson González (González), who posed as a drug trafficker from Texas. González and Hernández also discussed future purchases of heroin. Although the DEA investigation centered on Hernández's and López-López's drug trafficking activities, its efforts also yielded information that Martínez-Rodríguez, another PRPD officer, had been in contact with both López-López and Hernández. For example, two subpoenas of López-López's cell phone records revealed that López-López and Martínez-Rodríguez had at least twelve telephone communications between February 27, 2001 and March 26, 2001, and that between April 1, 2001 and April 24, 2001, López-López called Martínez-Rodríguez thirteen times, while Martínez-Rodríguez called López-López five times. Finally, a telephone toll/subscriber analysis of a telephone subscribed to José R. Martínez-Hernández revealed three prior telephone communications between Hernández and Martínez-Rodríguez.