Opinion ID: 149704
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Record Facts

Text: With the foregoing discussion as a guide, we turn to Trejo's sole argument on appeal that the factual basis for his guilty plea is insufficient to satisfy the specific intent requirement of § 1956(a)(2)(A). In reviewing this claim under a plain error standard, we examine the entire record for facts supporting Trejo's guilty plea. Vonn, 535 U.S. at 74-77, 122 S.Ct. 1043. This includes the facts gleaned from the plea agreement and plea colloquy, the factual findings relied upon in the presentence report (PSR), as well as fairly drawn inferences from the evidence presented both post-plea and at the sentencing hearing. United States v. Palmer, 456 F.3d 484, 489 (5th Cir.2006); Hildenbrand, 527 F.3d at 474-75 (citing United States v. Dyer, 136 F.3d 417, 425 n. 13 (5th Cir. 1998)). The indictment, if specific, is also fair game. United States v. Bachynsky, 949 F.2d 722, 730 (5th Cir.1991). The inculpatory facts of record drawn from the prosecution's factual proffer, the affidavit supporting Trejo's arrest, the plea agreement, the plea colloquy, the PSR, and the sentencing transcript unmistakably demonstrate that Trejo entered into a paid arrangement with a drug dealer named Jose to load Trejo's car with drug money and transport it from Florida to presumed traffickers in Mexico. Trejo willingly embarked on his assigned journey, accompanied by co-defendant Apolinar Villanueva. The men were stopped in Texas by suspicious law enforcement officials. Under questioning, both Trejo and Villanueva initially lied about their illegal activity, but ultimately conceded their true mission once confronted with the hidden cash. They confessed that they were hired by drug dealers to transport drug money to others in the drug business in Mexico. They supplied sketchy details about the person or persons who hired them, claiming to know them only as Jose and Cocho. They gave similarly vague details about the individuals in Mexico to whom they were delivering the cash. In an affidavit supporting their arrests, an IRS/CID agent described their actions as consistent with the manner in which experienced narcotics traffickers routinely launder drug money. During his plea colloquy, Trejo agreed that the prosecutor's factual rendition of his criminal conduct was correct. Whether these facts suffice to satisfy the specific intent requirement of § 1956(a)(2)(A) is a novel question in this circuit. Common sense would seem to dictate that an individual who knowingly agrees to transport drug money between drug dealers necessarily understands that his actions will promote the drug business. But, as discussed, knowing promotion is not enough for a conviction under the federal money laundering statute. Brown, 186 F.3d at 670. Instead the facts must demonstrate that, in transporting the funds, Trejo not only promoted the underlying drug trafficking business but that his intended purpose in so doingan end-goal, if you willwas to further the progress of the drug business. Id. In other words, there must be more than simply the bare act of knowingly transporting the drug money. Otherwise, every mere transportation of drug money in this manner would also qualify as a money laundering offense. See generally United States v. Heaps, 39 F.3d 479, 486 (4th Cir. 1994) ([W]ere payment for drugs itself held to be a transaction that promoted the unlawful activity of that same transaction virtually every sale of drugs would be an automatic money laundering violation as soon as the money changed hands.). [9] Such a result would surely run afoul of Congressional intent to create an offense distinct from the underlying crime that generated the dirty money in the first place. Id. (citing United States v. Edgmon, 952 F.2d 1206, 1213-14 (10th Cir.1991)). As such, we look for evidence beyond the bare act of transportation. Here, the incriminating facts show simply that Trejo signed on for a one-time trip to transport drug money for a dealer he did not know and, except for the one trip, had never worked for in the past. Even after he was caught red-handed transporting the drug money and confessed to officers, Trejo provided only scant details of the man named Jose who hired him. Evidence regarding the inner workings of the organization that hired him assuming that an operation even existed beyond Joseis virtually nonexistent in the record. Similarly, the record lacks facts regarding the individuals to whom Trejo was delivering the money and the nature of their ongoing activities, if any, beyond the one delivery. Certainly, the possibility exists that Trejo was dishonest about the scope of his involvement and the extent of his knowledge. [10] Even so, under the narrow facts at hand, this possibility yields naught by way of proving Trejo's intent to promote. Further, Villanueva's admissions, [11] which mirrored Trejo's in vagueness, add nothing to the evidentiary mix. Nor can we credit the IRS/CID agent's affidavit describing Trejo's conduct as typical of an experienced drug trafficker/money launderer. We have cautioned against relying upon such drug profiling testimony to prove a defendant's mental state. United States v. Ramirez-Velasquez, 322 F.3d 868, 879 (5th Cir.2003) (holding the agent's testimony as to what the drug courier knew violated Fed. R.Evid. 704(b) as improper opinion testimony on the ultimate issue). Finally, Trejo's on-the-record concession during the plea colloquy to the prosecutor's factual rendition establishes no more than his knowing transportation of the drug money. In sum, Trejo's conduct in this case, while undoubtedly criminal in nature, does not amount to promotion money laundering. A generous view of the record facts and their fairly drawn inferences shows only that Trejo intended to transport the drug money for a fee. We are left to speculate how Trejo could have entered into the transportation activity intending to promote the underlying drug trafficking activity when he knew nothing about it, save that Jose asked him to transport drug money. Because the record is devoid of facts, circumstantial or otherwise, beyond the bare act of transportation, we conclude that the factual basis for Trejo's plea does not adequately support his conviction for promotion money laundering and that the district court erred in accepting his plea on the facts presented. The only remaining question is whether the error was plain. It was not.