Opinion ID: 2967330
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cocaine Conspiracy Evidence

Text: Beginning as early as March of 1987 when law enforcement officers searched Phifer's bedroom, and continuing until the date of their arrest on December 14, 1994, Phifer and Angle were central players in a cocaine and crack conspiracy operating in both Iredell and Rowan counties in mid-western North Carolina, particularly in and around the city of Statesville and the town of Cleveland. Over the eight-year period, the conspiracy involved as many as a dozen different conspirators and as much as thirty kilograms of powder cocaine and three kilograms of crack. Local authorities profiled Phifer as a major cocaine conspirator sometime in 1987; authorities believed Angle entered the conspiracy as early as 1990. Without setting out that testimony witness by witness, consideration of the record reveals eyewitness testimony and corroborating 4 evidence of actual drug transactions involving Phifer and Angle on various occasions, in sum extending over a period of years. The record testimony is also complete from an eyewitness seller who sold the two vehicles to Phifer. An eyewitness testified that Phifer often hid the cocaine in a can or similar container. There was direct evidence of Phifer carrying a pistol, and evidence of seeing a pistol in the laundry room of Phifer's residence during one of the drug deals. In addition, there was evidence of marked money being used in a drug deal and being found thereafter in a dresser drawer in Angle's residence. Additionally, the prosecution introduced evidence buttressing the testimony of the eyewitnesses, including the incriminating evidence found in executing search warrants, palm prints of Phifer on a jar containing crack cocaine, sting operations, a search of Angle and his car, various income tax returns, pen registers, $2150 of marked money in a sum of $8099 found in Angle's bedroom during execution of a search warrant, and seizures of various weapons, two police scanners, and $2000 in currency found in executing a search of Phifer's bedroom. All this evidence tended to one degree or another to corroborate and state in greater detail the evidence of the various eye witnesses.