Opinion ID: 747163
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Narcotics Investigation

Text: 3 Federal authorities learned of appellant Da Cai Chen's criminal activities during an FBI investigation of a heroin trafficking organization led by Lei Da-Tian (Lei). In April 1995, after FBI agents had gathered evidence for over a year, Lei and four of his associates were arrested and charged with various narcotics-related offenses. The FBI's investigation of others in Lei's confederacy continued after the arrest of the original five coconspirators. Chen was among those targeted in the second phase of the investigation. 4 The continuing investigation revealed that for almost two years Chen had acted as a courier for Lei, delivering and picking up packages of heroin on several occasions between November 1993 and July 1995. Defendant also stored and transported firearms for Lei and his associates. For example, between the subject dates he kept a box containing a machine gun, a revolver and bullets, and a bulletproof vest. Xaio Lin Jiang, who was arrested with Lei in April 1995, retrieved Chen's box and delivered it to Lei in March 1995. On another occasion Chen delivered a container to Lei where, alongside a bottle of liquor, a handgun was concealed. That container was discovered in a Lei organization apartment during a search conducted when Lei and his associates were arrested. 5 Appellant was arrested in 1995 and charged with conspiring to distribute heroin. He ultimately agreed, pursuant to a written plea agreement (Agreement), to plead guilty to a superseding indictment charging him with distribution of more than one kilogram of heroin. The distribution charge was based on Chen's admission that he had delivered more than one kilogram of heroin for Lei in December 1994.