Opinion ID: 196165
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Testimony of Juan Carlos Garcia.

Text: 97 Juan Carlos Garcia, a participant in the money laundering activities, testified for the government at appellant's trial. Garcia said that in 1987, while living in the United States, he began working for his brother-in-law, Fernando Duenas. Following Duenas' orders, Garcia would respond when paged on his beeper, arrange to retrieve a quantity of cash, and deposit the money in one of several bank accounts maintained under the names of Duenas, Duenas' wife (Garcia's sister), or Duenas' brother. By the end of 1987 the cash had mushroomed from $10,000-$20,000 per shipment to $150,000-$200,000 per shipment. 98 Garcia met appellant for the first time in May 1989. With Duenas' blessing, the two men agreed that appellant would accept bundles of cash from Garcia and send the money to Colombia. On countless occasions thereafter, appellant received money from Garcia and redirected it to accounts controlled by Duenas. 99 At trial, the district court permitted Garcia, over objection, to testify that, in 1988, Duenas told him that a man named Caesar would call and give him something other than money. Garcia knew Caesar because Caesar had brought money to him on a previous occasion. Caesar called and informed Garcia that he would be delivering a kilogram of cocaine. Subsequently, Caesar handed Garcia a shopping bag containing a block of a granular substance, beige in color. Garcia tried to sell the merchandise, as directed by Duenas, but he was unable to do so. He eventually delivered the package to another individual on Duenas' instructions. 100 Appellant assigns error to the trial court's admission of the testimony anent the package. The assignment of error has twin foci: (1) the conversations between Duenas and Garcia, and (2) Caesar's assurance that the package contained cocaine. 20 We believe that the court lawfully admitted the evidence. 101 The Evidence Rules provide that a statement by a coconspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy is not considered hearsay. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Here, the first prong of the rule is satisfied. The record contains adequate evidence that Duenas, Garcia, and Caesar were involved in a single conspiracy to launder money. By joining that conspiracy at a later date, appellant effectively adopted coconspirator declarations previously made. See United States v. Murphy, 852 F.2d 1, 8 (1st Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1022, 109 S.Ct. 1145, 103 L.Ed.2d 205 (1989); see also United States v. Baines, 812 F.2d 41, 42 (1st Cir.1987) ([A] conspiracy is like a train. When a party knowingly steps aboard, he is part of the crew, and assumes conspirator's responsibility for the existing freight--or conduct--regardless of whether he is aware of just what it is composed.). 102 The second prong of the rule is also satisfied; the statements were made during and in furtherance of the very conspiracy that appellant joined. For one thing, we have held that when a number of people combine efforts to manufacture, distribute and retail narcotics, there is a single conspiracy, a 'chain conspiracy,' despite the fact that some of the individuals linking the conspiracy together have not been in direct contact with others in the chain. United States v. Rivera-Santiago, 872 F.2d 1073, 1080 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 492 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 3227, 106 L.Ed.2d 576 (1989). For another thing, money laundering and narcotics trafficking are symbiotic activities, each of which may require the other in order to continue. Duenas' efforts to have Garcia sell the cocaine for him and the group's ongoing campaign to launder money can rationally be seen as adjacent links in the lengthy chain that binds up the narcotics trafficking cycle. Thus, the district court acted within its proper province in deeming both activities part of the same conspiracy, and in holding that the attempted narcotics sale was in furtherance of it. Consequently, the challenged statements were properly admitted under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). 103 We note, moreover, as did the district court, that a statement made by an unavailable declarant 21 falls outside the hearsay exclusion if the statement at the time of its making ... so far tended to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability ... that a reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true. Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3). Duenas' and Caesar's statements to Garcia were tantamount to admissions that they were dealing cocaine. Because such statements were against the declarants' penal interest, they came within the encincture of Rule 804(b)(3) and were admissible on that basis. 104 Finally, appellant's suggestion that the admission of Garcia's testimony abridged the Confrontation Clause is off base. It is well settled that a statement falling within a firmly rooted hearsay exception will not be held to violate the Confrontation Clause. See Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 2539, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980); Puleio v. Vose, 830 F.2d 1197, 1204-05 (1st Cir.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 990, 108 S.Ct. 1297, 99 L.Ed.2d 506 (1988). It is equally well settled that the exceptions for coconspirator declarations and for declarations against penal interest are both firmly rooted in our jurisprudence. See Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 183, 107 S.Ct. 2775, 2782-83, 97 L.Ed.2d 144 (1987) (discussing coconspirator exception); United States v. Innamorati, 996 F.2d 456, 474 n. 4 (1st Cir.1993) (discussing declaration against interest exception), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1073, 127 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994). 105