Opinion ID: 453299
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to

Text: 12 possess. 13 Focusing exclusively on their own testimony that they did not know cocaine was inside the containers or that criminal activity was in progress, appellants maintain the evidence was insufficient to establish that they had the criminal intent necessary to be convicted of possession or conspiracy to possess. 5 However, other evidence presented established appellants' participation in a carefully orchestrated and timed off-loading operation, revealing conduct by appellants that belies their protestations of innocent intent and lack of knowledge. Buenaventura Martinez, the security guard, refused to open the gate for a truck that arrived earlier in the evening to deliver rugs for the boat, but willingly opened the gate at 11:00 p.m. when he drove a car from outside the gate into the dock area. Once he parked the car in the dock area, containers filled with cocaine were put into its trunk. Buenaventura Martinez then reopened the gate to let the car, now loaded with cocaine, drive out. 14 Salcedo, a crewmember for the MAR AZUL, and Juan Martinez, brother of Buenaventura, were seen at the MAR AZUL at 11:00 p.m. taking the containers from the ship into the car. These activities, along with the facts that the activity began at 11:00 p.m. and that the lights illuminating the MAR AZUL suddenly were turned off as this off-loading operation began, indicate that appellants had knowledge of the drug conspiracy and, armed with such knowledge, acted in a manner that unmistakenly forwarded that conspiracy. Such evidence is amply sufficient to sustain convictions for possession and conspiracy to possess. United States v. Lopez-Llerena, 721 F.2d 311 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1602, 1913, 80 L.Ed.2d 132 (1984).