Opinion ID: 805191
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Offense Conduct in 2003

Text: In 2003, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agents investigated a Colombian narcotics trafficking group that was based in Panama. As a result of the investigation, the DEA seized a shipment of approximately 121 kilograms of cocaine as it arrived in Port Everglades, Florida, on November 7, 2003. The trafficking group had arranged for the cocaine shipment to be distributed among three or four different groups of buyers, with the sales to be facilitated by several DEA confidential sources (“CS”). Defendant Bru and his co-defendant William Acevedo Sterling formed one of the groups of buyers. Law enforcement agents monitored and recorded the negotiations that took place between a CS and the Bru/Sterling group. 2 On November 18, 2003, a CS told DEA agents that one of the Colombian traffickers told him to distribute 35 kilograms of the cocaine to “Julio” in Miami, and said that Julio would call the CS to arrange a meeting. Shortly thereafter, a man who identified himself as Julio called the CS. Julio said he would send someone to meet the CS to pick up the cocaine. Later, the CS received a call from co-defendant Sterling, who identified himself as “a friend of Julio’s.” Sterling and the CS set up a time and place to do the pick-up. The CS arrived at the pre-arranged location with a bag containing 35 kilograms of “sham” cocaine. The CS called Julio and said he was waiting for Julio’s friend to arrive. A short time later, defendant Bru arrived and approached the CS’s car. DEA agents watched defendant Bru enter the car from the passenger side, talk to the CS, leave with the bag of sham cocaine, and ride away in a white Ford Expedition that was rented in defendant Bru’s name and was being driven by co-defendant Sterling. DEA agents stopped the Expedition and arrested Bru and Sterling. The CS told DEA agents that Bru had told the CS, during their conversation in the car, that he was Julio.