Opinion ID: 2775033
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seizures of Currency Evidence

Text: Law enforcement seized multiple large sums of cash from the conspirators between 2007 and 2011. The jury heard testimony as to the above-described June 2007 and January 2010 traffic stops of defendant Holt that resulted in the seizure of $45,940 in cash and $31,260 in cash, respectively. Additionally, in January 2011, when Carswell attempted to pass through security screening at Boston Logan International Airport, a large amount of cash was discovered among her things. Ultimately, law enforcement was alerted and $76,040 was seized from Carswell at the airport. 17 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 18 of 67 In March 2011, law enforcement intercepted a box containing approximately $58,000 in cash sent through the mail from “Ron Smith, 148 Main Street, Foxboro, Mass” to “Can’t Stop Trucking” in Hollywood, Florida. At the time, Carswell’s point of contact in Boston was Ricardo Stevenson, who would meet with Carswell and give her the money to return to Barbary. His address was 149 Main Street in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The evidence showed that Can’t Stop Trucking was defendant Barbary’s trucking company that was run out of his residence at the Florida address listed on the package. Following the interception of the package, a police officer went to that address and spoke with defendant Lewis, who claimed to be the manager of Can’t Stop Trucking. Lewis denied that the business ever received boxes of cash in the mail. Lewis also denied that she had a contact number for Barbary. However, phone records showed that Lewis and Barbary called each other around 30 times between March 23 and 24, 2011. Finally, federal agents searched Jackson’s house in Fort Myers on December 2, 2011, and seized approximately $20,000 in cash, which a drug dog alerted on. C. Seizures of Oxycodone and Cocaine from Defendants As mentioned in Carswell’s testimony, defendant Hartfield was arrested in September 2010 at a Boston train station with oxycodone and other pills in his possession. Evidence at trial showed that, between June and September 2010, 18 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 19 of 67 Hartfield made multiple two-day train trips from Florida to Boston. Hartfield’s train tickets were purchased with a Visa Netspend prepaid debit card (“Netspend card”) in his name. However, the billing address, email address, and phone number associated with the Netspend card belonged to Barbary. Hartfield’s September 2010 train ticket had two associated phone numbers, one belonging to Barbary and one belong to Hartfield. On September 24, 2010, Hartfield arrived in Boston from Hollywood, Florida, via train. Upon his arrival, Hartfield was arrested on an outstanding warrant by DEA Special Agent David O’Neill. After receiving Miranda7 warnings, Hartfield stated that he wished to cooperate and admitted to Agent O’Neill that he had, on four to five prior occasions, transported oxycodone from Florida to Boston. A search of the bag that Hartfield brought on the train trip revealed more than 9,300 oxycodone pills. Following Hartfield’s arrest, while he remained in custody, activity on the Netspend card continued, including in South Florida. In particular, deposits totaling more than $8,000 were made onto the card between September 2010 and March 2011. Additionally, records from the travel website Expedia showed that multiple trips between February 2010 and June 2011 were booked using the Netspend card through an Expedia account registered under Barbary’s name. 7 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966). 19 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 20 of 67 On September 29, 2011, a police officer pulled over a car driven by defendant Lewis, with an infant child in the backseat, on I-75 near Fort Myers, Florida.8 Because Lewis’s license was suspended, the officer wrote Lewis a citation, arranged for a tow of Lewis’s vehicle and transportation for Lewis to a nearby 7-Eleven where she could wait for a ride, and told Lewis she could take essential items for the baby. Lewis wanted to take a large baby stroller and a box of laundry detergent with her. When the officer told Lewis that there was not room in the transport vehicle for the items, Lewis said that she would return the stroller but insisted on keeping the detergent. However, the officer did not allow Lewis to take the detergent. Law enforcement subsequently discovered inside the box of detergent two vacuum-sealed bags containing a total of 613.2 grams of cocaine. D. Wiretap Evidence and DEA Agent Amber Sargent’s Testimony Pursuant to district court orders, four of defendant Barbary’s cellphones were tapped and monitored by federal agents from August 24, 2011, through January 13, 2012. The government’s lead case agent, DEA Special Agent Amber Sargent, testified that she reviewed at least 99 percent of the thousands of phone calls and text messages that were intercepted over the wiretaps. 8 GPS tracker evidence indicated that Lewis was coming from Broward County, Florida, at the time she was pulled over. Gate records for the gated community where Jackson lived in Fort Myers, Florida, showed that Lewis made the approximately five-hour roundtrip from Broward County, Florida, to Fort Myers to visit Jackson 16 times between March and December 2011. 20 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 21 of 67 Overruling objections by defendants Holt, Barnes, Lewis, and Barbary, the district court admitted Agent Sargent as an expert witness in the area of drugtrafficking organizations’ techniques to avoid detection, including use of coded language, and permitted her to testify as to the meanings of code words and phrases used by the conspirators on intercepted communications. Agent Sargent testified that she had been a DEA special agent for more than six years, had experience in narcotics investigations, and had experience working on two prior wiretap investigations. Agent Sargent was the lead case agent in one of those prior wiretap investigations, and the surveillance team leader in the other. She also was knowledgeable about common prices for particular quantities of illegal drugs. Agent Sargent further testified that, based on her training and experience, she had learned that drug-traffickers sometimes used code words for controlled substances. As to this case, she formed opinions as to the meanings of the coded language used by the conspirators in the intercepted communications based on her training and experience, the investigation, logic, and the content and context of the communications. Although an untrained person possibly could listen to an intercepted phone call and accurately guess as to the meaning of certain words, Agent Sargent testified, her training and experience, knowledge of the investigation, and ability to understand the context of the calls enabled her to more 21 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 22 of 67 accurately interpret the code words and language than either a lay person or the prosecutor. In rejecting the defendants’ arguments that Agent Sargent was not qualified to testify as an expert witness, the district court found Sargent’s testimony admissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S. Ct. 2786 (1993), based on her training as a DEA agent, her prior experience both on wiretap cases and generally as an agent, and the extent of her involvement in this particular case. The district court then instructed the jury: “A scientific technical or other specialized knowledge might be helpful, a person who has training and experience in that field is allowed to state an opinion about that matter, but that doesn’t mean you must accept the witness’s opinion. As with any other witnesses’s [sic] testimony, you must decide for yourself whether to rely on that opinion.” The government played for the jury numerous recorded cell phone conversations between defendant Barbary and other conspirators, and asked Agent Sargent after some of the recordings, based on her training and experience, to explain or interpret various words and phrases used by the conspirators. For example, in an August 26, 2011, phone call, Barbary told defendant Lewis to take “that thing in the glove . . . [and] weigh all that right quick.” Lewis then sent a text message to Barbary, stating: “446.2,” to which Barbary responded: 22 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 23 of 67 “Put all2gether n seal it.” Agent Sergent testified that she believed that Barbary was texting Lewis to weigh an illegal substance and seal it. On August 28, 2011, defendant Barnes told Barbary that he had, in the morning, “served a lil bit,” and then later in the day, again “served a lil.” Later in that call Barnes also said that he had spoken with an individual who “say[s] he can move it” and whose “home boys had one down there in Lauderdale.” Barbary responded that Barnes should “get at [Barbary] tomorrow.” A few days later, Barbary asked Barnes whether Barnes had “check[ed] with the boy about the thing.” Barnes responded that the person had three people at five different doctors. Barbary asked “[h]ow much they suppose[d] to get,” and Barnes responded, “Three hundred.” Agent Sargent testified that she believed Barnes’s statements about “serv[ing] a lil” referred to distributing drugs, and that Barnes and Barbary’s conversation about “three hundred” and having three people at five doctors “referr[ed] to doctor shopping for Oxycodone pills.” On September 10, 2011, in a phone call with Jackson, defendant Barbary asked, “[H]ow long you think she have the key?” Jackson replied, “I don’t know . . . I got to hit him up . . . he want a son too.” Agent Sargent testified that “key” meant kilogram and the term “son” referred not to a child, but to a drug quantity that was less than a kilogram. Later that day, Jackson and Barbary discussed grabbing “a son,” “the one crazy,” that Jackson was “already started on [his] 23 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 24 of 67 second son,” and that “both of the crazy gone.” The next day, Barbary asked Barnes whether Barnes was “ready on that,” and Barnes replied, “Naw . . . three left.” In a September 14, 2011, phone call with Adrian Garvin, Barbary asked Garvin whether the “moonlight blu ray movie came out?” When Garvin responded affirmatively, Barbary inquired as to the price. Garvin said it was “$30, and Barbary replied, “Oh the whole big DVD? . . . [T]hat’s kind of steep right now.” Garvin suggested that he could “maybe politic with the [person],” and Barbary said, “Alright, I’ll hit you when I’m in the area tomorrow.” Agent Sargent testified that she believed that the “$30” on a “whole big DVD” referred to $30,000 for a kilogram of cocaine. Shortly thereafter, in a phone call between Barbary and Jackson, Jackson said that his “last son bitch, that bitch weighed two twenty eight . . . I got one more son left, the little short one . . . I told you to, got to buy them sons dog.” Later in the call, Barbary said, “I going to throw you that grown over there . . . . I’m just waiting on a mother fucker to come.” Jackson responded, “If I do the son for the all eight two fifty. . . . that will be thirty-three . . . I’m trying to keep that shit moving.” Agent Sargent testified as to her opinion that “228” referred to 228 grams, the “little short one” referred to the 228 grams, and the “eight two fifty” referred to the price of a “son,” which she believed to be a quarter-kilogram of 24 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 25 of 67 cocaine based on the price of cocaine and the fact that “four times 8,250” would equal “$33[,000].” Barbary and defendant Barnes, in a September 16, 2011, phone call, discussed that Barnes’s “cousin” had called and “[s]aid it’s supposed to be comin to him.” Barnes told Barbary that the “cousin’s” “number ain’t gonna be what you be . . . trying to get. . . . Be like, what you gonna say something over 30, 30 or better?” Barbary said that would not work and to “see if he say something under that.” Barbary and Barnes agreed on “29 or better.” Agent Sargent testified that she believed that “29” and “30” referred to the price of a kilogram of cocaine, $29,000 or $30,000. Barnes and Barbary spoke again on September 18, 2011, and Barbary asked, “You ready for me?” Barnes responded, “Not yet. . . . Three left.” In a September 21, 2011, phone call with Barbary, Barnes complained that he was “[l]osing all of [his] god damn customers. One got killed, one in jail.” Agent Sargent testified that she believed that Barnes was referring to his customers in the drug business. On September 26, 2011, Jackson told Barbary, “I’m doing my last son mighta wanted a grown man,” and Barbary said, “I can probably still pull one or two out of my hat.” That same day, Barbary asked Barnes whether Barnes was “ready,” and Barnes said he was “working on the last one.” The next day, Barnes told Barbary that “Cousin said thirty,” and Barbary responded that he did not want 25 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 26 of 67 it because “that number is too high.” Later that day, Jackson notified Barbary that he would “be ready for a grown tomorrow if you still got it,” and Barbary said, “I do.” In a subsequent phone call, Barbary asked Jackson, “How long before you kill that other son?,” and Jackson replied, “[P]robably like tomorrow.” Agent Sargent testified as to her opinions that “30 being $30,000” referred to the price of a kilogram of cocaine, and that “grown” and “son” meant a kilogram and quarterkilogram of cocaine, respectively. In an October 13, 2011, phone call between Barnes and Barbary, Barnes referred to a person who “wanted some some [sic] crazy.” Barbary said, “Alright what you wanna get it in the morning?” Barnes replied, “Yea.” The next day, Barbary told Barnes, “I’m gonna have you meet me at the lake.” Agent Sargent testified that she believed “the lake” referred to a house in Opa-locka and that a cooperating codefendant had told her that “crazy” meant heroin. During an October 30, 2011, phone call between defendant Holt and Barbary, Barnes—using Holt’s phone—got on the line with Barbary at one point, indicating a connection between Holt and Barnes. Additionally, in two other phone calls between Barbary and Holt, Holt referred to earlier conversations between himself and Barnes. 26 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 27 of 67 On November 23, 2011, Barbary and Barnes had a conversation in which Barnes twice referenced “the regular.”9 On November 25, 2011, Barnes said that he “already got the cheese” and asked Barbary whether Barbary had “the crazy.” The next day, after Barnes complained that he was no longer Barbary’s “main man,” Barbary said, “[W]e gonna get together.” Barnes asked, “On the crazy or the other thing,” and Barbary said, “Everything.” E. Search Warrants On December 15, 2011, federal agents executed a search warrant at defendant Holt’s apartment in Opa-locka, Florida. After officers knocked and announced their presence, a red plastic cup containing 20 oxycodone pills was thrown by one of the apartment’s occupants out of a window, and officers entered and found Holt and his girlfriend present in the apartment. Federal agents then executed a search warrant on Barbary and JasperBarbary’s residence on January 13, 2012. The residence contained security cameras on all four corners. Agents seized a book called “Busted By the Feds, The Book: Defendants facing federal prosecution, including the latest sentencing guidelines for all federal crimes”; a computer with documents regarding heroin and asset forfeiture in drug cases; and a computer that, in an account assigned to Lewis, 9 One of the DEA investigating agents testified on cross-examination that “the regular” refers to cocaine. 27 Case: 13-10453 Date Filed: 01/30/2015 Page: 28 of 67 contained photographs of a large amount of money. When Barbary was arrested, the Netspend card was on his person.