Opinion ID: 769603
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Murder-For-Hire Investigation

Text: 18 In the course of monitoring the wiretaps set up to investigate the drug conspiracy, law enforcement officials learned about a murder-for-hire plot in which Stanley hired Bennett to murder a person suspected of stealing drug proceeds from the Stanley organization. Stanley's reason for hiring Bennett to do the killing was interwoven with Stanley's drug operation. Therefore, the wiretap authorization was sufficient to encompass the murder-for-hire plot. See United States v. Petti, 973 F.2d 1441, 1446 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that facts justifying a wiretap application for uncovering a gambling operation justified the government's shift to investigating a money laundering scheme using the same wiretap). As a result, no further showing of necessity for the murder-for-hire investigation was required; it was part and parcel of the larger drug conspiracy investigation. See United States v. Homick, 964 F.2d 899, 904 (9th Cir. 1992).