Opinion ID: 1458127
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the Wiretap was Necessary

Text: When reviewing necessity, we employ a common sense approach to evaluate the reasonableness of the government's good faith efforts to use traditional investigative tactics or its decision to forgo such tactics based on the unlikelihood of their success or the probable risk of danger involved with their use. Gonzalez, Inc., 412 F.3d at 1112 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Though `the wiretap should not ordinarily be the initial step in the investigation,... law enforcement officials need not exhaust every conceivable alternative before obtaining a wiretap.'  Canales Gomez, 358 F.3d at 1225-26 (quoting United States v. McGuire, 307 F.3d 1192, 1196-97 (9th Cir.2002)). The necessity for the wiretap is evaluated in light of the government's need not merely to collect some evidence, but to `develop an effective case against those involved in the conspiracy.' United States v. Decoud, 456 F.3d 996, 1007 (9th Cir.2006) (quoting United States v. Brone, 792 F.2d 1504, 1506 (9th Cir. 1986)). Thus, we have `consistently upheld findings of necessity where traditional investigative techniques lead only to apprehension and prosecution of the main conspirators, but not to apprehension and prosecution of ... other satellite conspirators.'  McGuire, 307 F.3d at 1198 (quoting Torres, 908 F.2d at 1422). It is clear that the DEA did not seek to use the wiretap as the initial step in the Rivera investigation but instead used numerous investigative techniques, and considered using several others, over the course of a 19-month investigation before applying for the wiretap. While the government could probably have relied on these techniques alone to successfully prosecute a few individuals, including Jerardo Rivera and Rigoberto, for drug crimes, the issuing court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the wiretap was necessary to identify the full scope of the Rivera organization and develop an effective case against its members. See Decoud, 456 F.3d at 1007. This case is distinguishable from Gonzalez, Inc., where we held that the government had failed to demonstrate necessity for a wiretap on the telephone of the main office of a bus company that the government suspected was being used in an alien smuggling ring. In that case, the government had already conducted a multi-year investigation into the alleged alien smuggling activities but then sought to intercept incriminating evidence linking the company's founder and other persons in the company's main office to those alien-smuggling activities. 412 F.3d at 1106-07. The affidavit supporting the wiretap application demonstrated that the government had conducted only limited investigation into the activities at the company's main office before applying for a wiretap. Id. at 1108. Specifically, the affidavit demonstrated that the government had conducted only five-days-worth of pen register and trap-and-trace analysis of the office's telephone and had conducted only limited physical surveillance of the office before abandoning its surveillance efforts. Id. at 1112. We concluded that the affidavit indicated that the government side-stepped its responsibility to use promising traditional techniques when it began to investigate the [company's] office, and instead conducted only the most cursory investigation before seeking a wiretap. Id. at 1113-14. Here, the DEA conducted far more than a cursory investigation before applying for the wiretap. Over the course of 19 months, the DEA conducted physical surveillance of various targets of the investigation; conducted telephone information analysis of Target Telephones 1 and 2 and other telephone numbers associated with the Rivera organization; used several confidential sources to try to infiltrate the Rivera organization or purchase narcotics from it, including from Jerardo Rivera and Rigoberto; consulted with several sources of information to obtain information about the Rivera organization; used an undercover agent to gain information about the Rivera organization's money laundering activities; collected trash at the residences of two members of the Rivera organization and attempted to collect trash at the residence of Rigoberto; and attempted to persuade Gilberto Mungia, a member of the Rivera organization, to cooperate with the Rivera investigation. [2] Thus, the DEA's pre-wiretap investigation was significantly more thorough than in Gonzalez, Inc., and we find it to be sufficient. [3] See, e.g., United States v. Carneiro, 861 F.2d 1171, 1178 (9th Cir.1988) (upholding wiretap order where the DEA used informants, surveillance, pen registers and undercover agents before resorting to a wiretap). Defendants contend that the DEA failed to demonstrate necessity because it did not use traditional investigative techniques as much as it could have. Specifically, Defendants contend that the DEA could have conducted physical surveillance in Tijuana, Mexico, where the DEA knew that Gilberto's family resided; could have used CS5 for a longer period of time in the hope that he would infiltrate the Rivera organization; and could have performed trash runs at residences of other members of the Rivera organization, for example by dressing up as trash collectors or using actual garbage collection employees to collect the trash. Defendants may well be correct. But we have repeatedly held that law enforcement officials need not exhaust every conceivable alternative before obtaining a wiretap. Canales Gomez, 358 F.3d at 1225-26 (quoting McGuire, 307 F.3d at 1196-97); Brone, 792 F.2d at 1506. Further supporting a finding of necessity here is the fact that the DEA was investigating a large drug trafficking conspiracy and was seeking to prosecute not only the main conspirators but also the Rivera organization's suppliers, distributors and other known and unknown members. See McGuire, 307 F.3d at 1198. While we agree with Defendants that the government could have  and perhaps should have  further utilized traditional investigative techniques before applying for the wiretap, we may not reverse simply because we might have decided not to grant the wiretap. We review the issuing court's decision to grant the wiretap for an abuse of discretion, Lynch, 437 F.3d at 912, and we conclude that the issuing court did not abuse its discretion here.