Opinion ID: 490521
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Events Leading to Giraldo's Arrest

Text: 3 In May 1984, undercover New York City Police Detective Robert Johnson was introduced to Albertose Mesa, who undertook to find a source that could supply Johnson with 10-20 kilograms of cocaine per week. In the months that followed, Mesa attempted, through his brother, to find a cocaine source in Colombia. On the evening of December 13, 1984, Mesa's brother received a call from a male voice that stated, We got the stuff in New York. Mesa spoke to the caller, who identified himself as Tony or Tono. A series of telephone calls followed between Mesa and Tony and between Mesa and Johnson to arrange for the delivery to Johnson of five kilograms of cocaine on December 17, with additional sales of 10-20 kilos to follow if all went well. 4 On December 17, Johnson and Mesa agreed to meet at a restaurant at 8 p.m. Johnson asked Mesa to call his beeper once Mesa had the cocaine in his possession. At about 7 p.m., Johnson's beeper sounded and displayed the telephone number 507-0974. Johnson called the number and asked if Mesa was there. A male voice replied, No. He go there. Don't worry. 5 At 8 p.m., Johnson was met at the restaurant by Mesa, accompanied by Roberto Ramos, a codefendant at the trial below who was acquitted of the charges against him. Mesa said the cocaine was in their car; Ramos then went to that car, and Mesa and Johnson went to Johnson's car where Johnson showed Mesa a flash roll of $80,000 in cash. Mesa then left to retrieve the cocaine and returned a short time later in a car driven by Ramos. Ramos told Johnson the cocaine was in the trunk and released the trunk latch from inside the car. After Mesa opened the trunk and showed Johnson a flight bag containing the five kilos of cocaine, Ramos and Mesa were arrested. 6 Following these arrests, Ramos told the arresting agents that, before going to the restaurant, he had driven Mesa to 80-22 47th Avenue in Queens. Mesa had entered the second-floor apartment at that address with an empty flight bag and minutes later had come out carrying a full flight bag that he placed in the trunk of Ramos's car. 7 During their early communications, Tony had told Mesa that his address was 80-22 47th Avenue in Queens. A check with the telephone company revealed that 507-0974, the number that had appeared on Johnson's beeper, was subscribed to at that address. The second-floor apartment at that address had been rented to Giraldo under an alias and was occupied by Giraldo, his wife, and his two female children. 8 Late on the evening of the arrests, agents executed a search warrant for the second-floor apartment at 80-22 47th Avenue. Shortly after the search began, Giraldo arrived. Urged by the agents to cooperate, Giraldo led them to an open safe in which the agents found, inter alia, 1.7 kilograms of cocaine and more than $72,000 in cash, and to a closet in which they found triple-beam scales and other paraphernalia commonly used in narcotics operations. The agents also found coded drug records and a telephone answering machine containing a tape that had recorded several messages. The messages were terse orders in terms of bread and chicken. One man called twice to order single piece of pita bread for delivery; another stated, I need the bread very badly; a third started to say that he needed some bread but, perhaps realizing that the message was being recorded, stopped in mid-sentence, said Oh my goodness, and hung up. The government argued that these messages were coded orders for cocaine.