Opinion ID: 596393
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reed and Kane: The Three Factors

Text: 65 The government maintains that a common goal underlay all the overt acts charged in the indictment, namely the importation and distribution of cocaine via Colombia. The government also argues that the defendants maintained a constant scheme of using private jets to transport cocaine through a waystation (whether Antigua, the Bahamas or Mexico) into the United States. 66 In Khoury, the jury was presented with evidence similar to that presented in this case. There we found that: 67 [T]here was indisputably a common goal, the importation of methaqualone into the United States, to be distributed in tablet form. The nature of the scheme remained the same as well: methaqualone would be shipped from China to a transshipping destination, either Hong Kong, Canada, or Haiti, and would then be smuggled into the United States, with air infiltration being the preferred method. 68 Khoury, 901 F.2d at 956. Here as in Khoury, the government has charged the defendants with importation of a certain drug (cocaine) via three waystation countries (Antigua, the Bahamas and Mexico). The uncanny similarity between the two factual scenarios binds us to the Khoury holding, as to Kane and Reed, that there was indisputably a common goal ... [and] [t]he nature of the scheme remained the same as well. Id. 69 The government also argues that it has proven the third factor necessary to establish a single conspiracy, namely a sufficient overlap of participants. The record shows that Reed and Kane were both involved with the overarching drug conspiracy either continuously or at numerous times during the fifteen years of alleged criminal activity. 10 Hence, the government has also met the participant overlap prong of the single conspiracy test. Therefore, as to Reed and Kane, we find that a reasonable jury could have found that a single conspiracy underlay the charged crimes. Because no variance existed with respect to Kane and Reed, we need not reach the prejudice issue.