Opinion ID: 3161986
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant’s CI Work

Text: In 2008, while living in Colombia, Defendant obtained some information regarding weapons and narcotics activity. Having worked as a CI in the past, he had received training in field operations and intelligence gathering. Accordingly, around April of 2008, Defendant went to the United States Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, to share his recently-gained intelligence with the DEA. After providing a previously-assigned code that identified him as a former CI, Defendant met with DEA Agents Matthews and Romain and offered them information that was potentially useful to the dismantling of a drug trafficking cartel. 4 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 5 of 46 Other meetings followed this first session, and Agent Romain decided that he wanted to use Defendant to infiltrate an organization in which one undercover operative was already working. Accordingly, on August 28, 2008, Defendant and Agent Romain entered into a contract formally authorizing Defendant to work as a CI. The agreement made clear that Defendant would have no immunity from prosecution for activities that were not specifically authorized by his controlling investigators. Further reinforcing that condition, the contract required Defendant to agree that he would take no independent action on behalf of the DEA or the United States government. The term of the agreement was one year, meaning that it would expire in August 2009. Defendant then began providing Romain with information about Franklin McField-Bent, a Nicaraguan national known to authorities as the supplier of a transportation service used by drug dealers to move cocaine from the interior of Colombia, to the Nicaragua/Honduras border, to Guatemala, and then to Mexico. Romain sought Defendant’s assistance as part of his effort to build a case against McField-Bent and the Titos Montes trafficking organization. Also in August 2008, Defendant began working with DEA Agent Ball in Honduras on an investigation into a terrorist named Jamal al Yousef. Ball and Defendant worked closely together during the investigation. Some of Defendant’s phone calls to targets in the Jamal al Yousef investigation were recorded under 5 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 6 of 46 Ball’s direction and Ball met with Defendant, both before and after key meetings with targets, to instruct and debrief him. Defendant was paid $8,800 for his work sometime in 2008 and worked on the investigation until March 2009. In early September 2008, Defendant signed two other CI agreements, each with a one-year term, with DEA Agents Sanes and Peterson, who were working in Honduras and Panama, respectively. Like the first agreement with Agent Romain, these agreements reiterated that Defendant could not act independently of his controlling agents. On October 2, 2008, Defendant met with both Agents Romain and Sanes to share information about McField-Bent. Then, sometime between October and December 2008, as a result of safety and security issues, Agent Ball instructed Defendant to leave Honduras. By January 2009, Defendant’s work and contact with the above agents had largely ceased, the exception being some continued work with Agent Ball on the al Yousef terrorist investigation, which ended in March 2009. Indeed, in January 2009, Defendant emailed Agent Ball, informing him that Agent Romain had told him to “fruck off” and leave Colombia as soon as possible because “you guys didn’t want to work with me” any longer. It was around this time that Agent Ball became aware of an ongoing investigation into Defendant’s unauthorized criminal activities. In fact, by May, Agent Romain had left Colombia and had no further contact with Defendant. 6 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 7 of 46 B. Defendant’s Involvement in Charged Conspiracy According to the evidence presented at trial, 2 Defendant was integrally and actively involved in the charged criminal conspiracy, which spanned over sixteen months. The overarching goal of the conspiracy was to obtain large quantities of cocaine, after which the transportation services of McField-Bent would be utilized to transport the drugs from Colombia to Mexico; thereafter, the drugs would be moved across the border to the United States. Defendant focused much of his efforts on acquiring drugs by trading weapons with an individual who could supply those drugs. This individual, Jaime Velasquez, purportedly was the commander of an illicit Colombian paramilitary group known as Autodefensas, which group very much wanted weapons. In actuality, Velasquez was an undercover operative who was working for both the Colombian government and the United States Department of Homeland Security. Defendant was introduced to Velasquez as a potential weapons supplier and, in a telephone conversation on June 12, 2009, Velasquez and Defendant discussed Velasquez’s desire to order SAM-7 missiles. 3 Defendant explained that he could 2 We take the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government. See United States v. Cavallo, 790 F.3d 1202, 1229 (11th Cir. 2015). That said, neither at trial nor on appeal has Defendant disputed his conduct during the charged conspiracy. Instead, he has argued that because he had been an informant, the Government should be deemed to have authorized him to undertake these actions. 3 The SAM-7 missile is a Soviet-built, shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile. The purpose of this missile is to launch air defense attacks and to force low-flying aircrafts into higher altitudes 7 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 8 of 46 be the intermediary for a potential exchange. Three days later, at an in-person meeting with Velasquez and others, Defendant stated that he worked with a “really good office,” which Velasquez understood to mean a good drug trafficking organization. Velasquez suggested that they start with a deal for six grenade launchers, which Defendant would arrange to have transported from Honduras to Colombia. Defendant proposed an exchange of one kilogram of cocaine for each grenade launcher. Defendant also told Velasquez that he could exchange cocaine for weapons in Central America and that McField-Bent was in charge of the drug transportation logistics. At some point during the meeting, Defendant had a telephone conversation with McField-Bent in which he mentioned that a woman named Lina Ester Grendet had given him “the terrain, that farm already, that 1,000-meter property,” which Velasquez understood to mean that Lina had given Defendant 1,000 kilograms of cocaine.4 Defendant explained that he was purchasing the cocaine from Lina for $7,000 per kilogram and planned to sell it for $9,500 to an individual named David. where radar can detect them. See Missile Firing Tube and Grip Stock, Surface-to-Air, SA7, http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19930358000 (last visited Sept. 21, 2015). 4 Throughout his dealings with Velasquez, Defendant used code words when discussing weapons or drugs. Likewise, he urged Velasquez to be vigilant as to the possibility of wire interceptions. 8 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 9 of 46 One month later, at a meeting on July 25, 2009, Velasquez again expressed interest in purchasing missiles from Defendant. Defendant asked Velasquez if Velasquez could help him recover some money that Lina owed him. Velasquez understood Defendant to be asking him to put pressure on Lina to pay back this money to Defendant. Defendant sent Velasquez an email with Lina’s contact information, including her address and a photograph of her. That same month, Defendant received two payments via wire transfer: one from Velasquez and one from Lina. Negotiations between Velasquez and Defendant and his group concerning this guns-for-drugs initiative continued for months until, finally, in May 2010, Defendant, McField-Bent, Jeison Archibold, and a Miguel Vilella met with Velasquez, who agreed to provide 400 kilograms of cocaine to Defendant’s group every twenty days in exchange for rocket-propelled grenade launchers, grenades, and other weapons. Talks continued and the deal was to be finalized with Velasquez at a meeting on October 8, 2010. But instead, Colombian officials arrested the conspirators at this meeting. Defendant, who was in Bogota and not present at that meeting, was arrested a month later. Although the weapons-trading aspect of the conspiracy was a focus of Defendant’s work, Defendant was also involved in other efforts by the group to acquire drugs independently of Velasquez. For example, in March 2010, 9 Case: 13-14843 Date Filed: 12/11/2015 Page: 10 of 46 Defendant, McField-Bent, and Archibold shipped a load of cocaine that was later seized en route to Honduras by Colombian authorities. Recorded conversations revealed discussion of an additional shipment in May 2010. In addition, as set out above, Defendant had purchased cocaine from Lina at some point prior to June 2009. Notably, most of the above-described events occurred after the August and September 2009 expiration dates of Defendant’s CI agreements with the federal agencies. All of them occurred after Agent Romain had told Defendant that the agents no longer wanted to work with him. And at no time during the sixteenmonth conspiracy did Defendant ever inform any of his supervising agents that these very significant criminal acts were occurring or that he was involved in their planning.