Opinion ID: 758679
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Raul Gamboa and Carlos Mena

Text: 94 Mary Hermann testified that she first met Carlos Antonio Mena a/k/a Gaspar Prado in early 1987 in Houston. At the time Hermann was transporting cocaine for Jose Mosquera. In Mosquera's apartment Hermann saw a drug ledger that belonged to Mena. The ledger contained figures representing distributions of kilogram quantities of cocaine. Mena took the ledger away from Hermann and told her not to look in it. In September of 1989 Mena was convicted in state court of Panola County, Texas, of aggravated possession of cocaine after law enforcement officers found 11 pounds of cocaine in a car he was driving. 95 In October of 1991 Wonda Cortes began using Tatiana Bedoya as a direct source of supply for cocaine instead of buying the cocaine through her estranged husband, Harold Cortes. Bedoya agreed to supply the cocaine in return for Wonda splitting the profits 50/50. In early November of 1991 Bedoya attempted to find a source of cocaine apart from the Samuel Posada-Rios organization. On November 7, 1991, she flew to Los Angeles to meet with Carlos Mena, whom she had known since 1988. Carlos Mena arranged for Wonda to meet with El Negro 6 to discuss the possibility of obtaining cocaine from a source not associated with Harold Cortes. Although Wonda and Mena continued to discuss a possible purchase of cocaine from Mena for several months, no purchase ever materialized from the discussions with El Negro or Mena. There was no evidence, either from Wonda's trial testimony or the recorded conversations between Wonda and Mena, that Wonda told Mena about the Posada-Rios organization or any of her co-conspirators in the organization. 96 On August 11, 1992, at around 5:45 p.m., United States Customs Service agents observed Raul Gamboa, Mena, and a woman arrive at Giro El Calima, a money exchange, in a tan Nissan Maxima. A confidential source had told the agents that money laundering was occurring at the giro house. The woman remained in the car while Gamboa and Mena scanned the cars in the parking lot. The men then walked empty handed into the giro house, remained inside for 10-15 minutes, and came out carrying a red and black gym bag that appeared to be quite heavy. Gamboa and Mena again scanned the parking lot before they got back in their car. Gamboa put the bag in the trunk of the car. 97 Agents followed the Nissan and noticed Mena making cellular telephone calls. The Nissan proceeded to the Collingsford Apartments, where it drove through a coded gate to the back of the apartment complex and then exited through another gate. The Nissan then circled around the complex and proceeded to the Rustic Village Apartments. Customs Agent Peter Lattanci, who participated in the surveillance of the Nissan, testified that these maneuvers were typical of a heat run--a tactic commonly used by drug traffickers to detect surveillance. At the Rustic Village Apartments Mena, Raul Gamboa, and the woman who was with them went into apartment # 181. A few minutes later a blue Mercury Sable, driven by Esmeralda Hooker, arrived and Hooker went into apartment # 181. 98 Mena, Gamboa, and Hooker left the apartment together and proceeded in the blue Sable to the Collingsford Apartments, where they parked the car. Dressed in raid jackets, agents approached Gamboa and Mena as they got out of the car. A Spanish-speaking officer informed Gamboa that the agents were investigating drug and money laundering activities at Giro El Calima. Gamboa consented to a search of the car and signed a Spanish language Voluntary Consent to Search and Seize form. Agents recovered a plastic bag that contained $34,000 in cash from the right rear passenger area of the car where Mena had been sitting. 99 When asked in Spanish about going to the Rustic Village Apartments, Gamboa stated he had driven Hooker there to visit her friends; and Mena stated that he had just been picked up by Gamboa and Hooker from a bus stop near the apartments. Both Gamboa and Mena denied being at the Giro El Calima or knowing anything about the Nissan Maxima. Gamboa and Mena were not arrested but agreed to follow the agents back to the Rustic Village Apartments. There, the Nissan Maxima was pointed out to both Mena and Gamboa, and they again denied any knowledge of the vehicle--which was registered to Mena--or of apartment # 181. The agents called a drug detection dog to the scene, and it alerted them to the trunk of the Nissan. After Gamboa consented to a search of the car agents seized from the trunk the red and black gym bag, which contained 9 packages of cocaine wrapped in plastic tape, and $4,000 in cash in the glove compartment, and arrested Mena and Gamboa. An hour or two later Mena admitted that he had owned the Nissan, but stated that he had sold it, but could not recall to whom.