Opinion ID: 196972
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Cocaine Trafficking

Text: 4 The Graffam affidavit included information purporting to establish that Zayas was supplying cocaine for distribution at various establishments in nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, including the Oasis Social Club. Based on information provided by a reliable confidential informant (first CI), the affidavit related that Marcello Sosa had been arrested on January 26, 1994, for selling cocaine at the Oasis Social Club. 2 An arresting officer advised that he had noticed an individual, known to him as Juan Rosario alias Nelson Martell, at the Oasis Social Club during Sosa's arrest. The first CI confirmed that he too had seen Sosa and a person known to him as Juan meet at the club, not only at the time of Sosa's arrest but on prior occasions. Sosa himself admitted that a man named Juan, who was present when Sosa was arrested, had supplied the six ounces of cocaine seized from Sosa's residence shortly after the arrest. 5 A subsequent documentation and record check disclosed a series of roughly compatible descriptions for Nelson Martell (height 5'6-9; weight 130-160 pounds; hair black or brown; eyes brown; glasses; left-arm tattoo; social security number zmi-zf-pqnn birth date either May 4, 1961 or August 16, 1954); home address 275 Lake Avenue, Manchester; license suspension for drunk driving in 1991; New Hampshire conviction and suspended sentence for heroin trafficking in 1992; and a December 1992 arrest and pending prosecution for cocaine trafficking in Connecticut, during which arrest Zayas attempted to discard cocaine over a highway embankment; and other aliases, including Juan Gonzalez. 6 On February 24, 1994, twelve days before the search, the Manchester police interviewed a confidential informant (second CI). The second CI, who had provided reliable information to law enforcement in the past, advised that he knew a person named Juan, surname believed to be Esquevar, who currently controls cocaine distribution at various Manchester business establishments, including the Oasis Social Club, and who delivered cocaine daily to his workers, including Sosa. The second CI described Juan (Cuban, dark-skinned, height 5'10, weight 160 pounds, black hair, brown eyes, glasses), and told the authorities that he was aware that Juan had been arrested in Connecticut on a cocaine trafficking charge, and that Juan had attempted to discard two kilos of cocaine at the time of the arrest by throwing it over a highway embankment.