Opinion ID: 146638
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tagaban

Text: Tagaban testified that he had caused methamphetamine to be shipped to George in McMinnville, Tennessee on numerous occasions. Tagaban always shipped the drugs via FedEx, generally using a carrier named Jeffery Jimenez to take the packages to the FedEx depot. On two occasions, however, Jimenez was unavailable, and Tagaban instead used Munoz, who was both his personal friend and his co-worker at the Imperial Irrigation District, where the two men made their rounds together in the same truck. On the first such occasion, in March or April 2006, while Tagaban and Munoz were on the job, Tagaban handed Munoz a sealed package already prepared for shipment, telling Munoz that it contained a couple of t-shirts and a coffee mug. However, on the second occasionthe July 2006 transaction which gave rise to the charges at issueTagaban prepared the shipment while Munoz watched. In Munoz's presence, Tagaban placed a clear plastic bag containing white powder in the box; when Munoz asked what the powder was, Tagaban told him it was meth. Tagaban asked Munoz to take the box to FedEx, and Munoz agreed to do so. Tagaban never paid Munoz for his assistance. Tagaban also testified that he would occasionally hold parties at his house attended by his drug-dealer friends, as well as by Munoz. According to Tagaban, at one of these parties, about two months prior to his and Munoz's arrest, Tagaban did a [drug] transaction right there in front of [Munoz], selling two ounces of methamphetamine to a man named Jeffrey Dalente while Munoz looked on. Accordingly, Tagaban was pretty sure [Munoz] had to know Tagaban [was] a drug dealer.