Opinion ID: 1199978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Leerdam's Entry into the Conspiracy

Text: In July, 2005, Leerdam met a man known as Amauri (Andrea Lorenzo's nephew) in a nightclub in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, who offered her a job smuggling drugs outside of the Dominican Republic. (Trial Transcript (Tr.) at 141-42.) The day after their meeting at the nightclub, he asked Leerdam to meet him at a house, where she found him cutting up carrots that she learned were for her to swallow to train [her], to see if [she] could swallow drugs. ( Id. at 143.) Leerdam was unable to swallow the carrots easily, and thus planned to smuggle drugs outside of the Dominican Republic in suitcases instead. ( Id. at 144.) Leerdam's first smuggling trips  three in all  were from the Dominican Republic to the Netherlands; for each trip, she received approximately $3,000 from Amauri, ( id. at 183). Amauri then asked her to smuggle drugs into the United States. Leerdam initially refused because of her view that there were too many police officers ... in the U.S., ( id. at 145), but eventually acceded to Amauri's request.