Opinion ID: 145556
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Events on the Morning of April 30

Text: On April 30, 2008, UPS deliveryman Francisco Bautista had in his truck three items to be delivered to 124 Locust Hill Avenue in Yonkers, New York (124 Locust Hill), a multi-residence house. One was a next-day air envelope for Apartment 3. The other two were bulky packages (the Packages) weighing 72 and 62 pounds, respectively, each designated high value by the shipper in Puerto Rico, and each bearing an address label reading as follows: JOSE TORREZ (347) 712-4066 FLOOR # 1 124 LOCUST HILL AVE YONKERS N.Y. 10701 UNITED STATES (Government Exhibits (GX) 1, 2). Bautista testified that he went to 124 Locust Hill at approximately 9:45 a.m. that morning. When he arrived, he was approached by two Hispanic men, one of whom asked whether Bautista had a package for Jose or something. (Trial Transcript (Tr.) 239.) When Bautista responded affirmatively, the man stated that the Packages were for him. As the Packages were designated high value, Bautista requested identification. When the man produced a New York State Identification Card (ID Card) on which, Bautista noted, the name matched but the address didn't ( id. ), in that the ID Card showed an address in Brooklyn rather than Yonkers ( see id. at 239-40), Bautista said he could not release the Packages to the man because the address doesn't match ( id. at 240). The man tried to convince Bautista to release the Packages by saying that he was moving and had not yet changed his ID Card; Bautista was unpersuaded. Bautista proceeded to deliver the next-day air envelope for Apartment 3 to the building's superintendent. Bautista inquired about the two men who had approached him and who remained alongside the building; the superintendent said he did not know them. ( See id. at 240-41.) Bautista departed. When he reached his next destination less than a minute away, and was exiting his truck, the two men he had encountered at 124 Locust Hill approached him again, asking about the Packages. Bautista said he would call his supervisor and if he were given authorization to release the Packages despite the ID discrepancy, he would return to 124 Locust Hill to deliver them. ( See Tr. 242.) After entering the building at this location, Bautista telephoned his supervisor, who told him not to release the Packages and said that a loss-prevention security agent (the LP) would be sent to meet him. When Bautista emerged from the building, the two men were still there and again urged him to release the Packages; they also asked Bautista to speak on their telephone to a cousin who had sent the Packages. Bautista told them he could not do anything without authorization from his supervisor. ( See id. at 243-44.) About a half-hour later, the LP met Bautista and they returned to the vicinity of 124 Locust Hill; Bautista parked some 5-10 feet from the building, and the LP parked behind him. When they arrived there, four men emerged from behind the building and stared at Bautista and the LP. ( See id. at 246-47.) After the LP made a quick telephone call, he and Bautista promptly departed. Bautista turned the Packages over to the LP. ( See id. ) The LP took the Packages to a UPS facility in Mount Vernon, New York, where they were opened in a secure, limited-access room by Alex Gamboa, a UPS security specialist. ( See, e.g., Tr. 257, 259-61.) The Packages contained kitchen cabinetsintroduced into evidence at trial each of which had a secret compartment: one on the back, the other at the bottom ( see, e.g., id. at 53-54, 263-64, 269-70). Inside each cabinet's secret compartment, Gamboa found five brick-shaped objects wrapped in black bags; inside those bags were white bags containing white material. ( See id. at 263-64, 266-70.) The compartments also contained newspaper, sprayed foam insulation, and other material to prevent the bags from moving around, shaking, or breaking apart. ( See, e.g., id. at 53-54.) Gamboa telephoned Detective Mark Carey of the Westchester County Police Narcotics Unit, who arrived shortly and took custody of the Packages. ( See id. at 271.) The bags secreted in the Packages were later determined to contain cocaine. The bags' total weight was approximately 10 kilograms. The cocaine had a street value of between $750,000 and $1 million. ( See, e.g., id. at 49, 77.)