Opinion ID: 758679
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Harold Cortes Organization (Manuel Parada )

Text: 47 Wonda Cortes testified for the government at trial. She explained that the Posada-Rios drug trafficking enterprise operated like a corporation. Cocaine and money had to be accounted for, stored, and redistributed; and money had to be paid out for renting houses for living and stashing contraband, for cars for transporting drugs and money, and for pagers, telephones, scanners, and antisurveillance devices. To accomplish these tasks Harold Cortes employed Victor Loaiza (a/k/a Julio Jimenez), Hernan Moreno (a/k/a Papo), and Manuel De Jesus Parada. 48 Victor Loaiza met Ariel Ochoa in 1989. Loaiza testified that in early 1990 he flew from Miami to Houston at Ochoa's request to take care of the money. Ochoa took Loaiza to an apartment, and Harold Cortes arrived at the apartment with $150,000 for Loaiza to guard. Loaiza remained in Houston about 1-1/2 months before returning to Miami. On his next trip he remained in Houston for 2-3 months. He helped count and guard $350,000 to $400,000. On three occasions Loaiza also transferred drug proceeds at Harold Cortes's direction in amounts ranging from $150,000 to $400,000 to a woman named Bruni and through Bedoya at One Stop Express. 49 Hernan Moreno and Manuel De Jesus Parada performed logistical services for Harold Cortes. They rented stash houses, cars, U-Haul trailers, telephones, and pagers. At Harold Cortes's direction they used false information in leases and applications, and changed residences periodically to minimize detection. Parada let Cortes and Moreno use his apartment at 2828 Rogerdale for registering car titles and applying for pager rentals. Moreno used Parada's Rogerdale address on a purchase application for a gold Oldsmobile, which he bought with cash, and that was later discovered to have a hidden compartment. 50 Parada also rented a house at 9658 Angie Street in his own name at Harold Cortes's instruction. Moreno, who paid the rent, and Alexis and Fernando (a/k/a Potes) moved into the house to guard cocaine stored there. Loaiza testified that he also rented an apartment on Trailing Vine. At Harold Cortes's instructions Loaiza listed Parada as a reference on the lease application. Loaiza explained that it was essential to use Parada as a reference because Parada had the necessary credit card. 51 Harold Cortes paid Parada $1,000 per month. Parada's name appeared in drug ledgers reflecting rent payments for stash houses, cars, and other expenses of the drug operation. Wonda Cortes explained that the ledger notations reflected expenses for their drug enterprise. For example, one entry in a ledger stated Manuel carro, phone car, phone house next to the figure 3.0. Wonda Cortes explained that the entry referred to a $3,000 payment to Parada for expenses of the car and the house telephone bill. 52 Harold Cortes also hired Parada to drive a car from Miami to Houston. Parada was stopped by a Louisiana state patrolman for a traffic violation on May 18, 1991. He told the patrolman that he was transporting the car from Florida to Houston for a friend, whom he did not identify. The car contained a fresh odor of fiberglass and paint. After obtaining Parada 's consent to search, the officer found an empty hidden compartment that had been built into the back of the rear seat and operated by a sophisticated hidden release device wired through the air conditioning vent. The car was also equipped with air shocks, controlled by an air pump panel switch, to disguise the weight being carried in the vehicle. Parada denied any knowledge of the hidden compartment. Parada was issued a traffic citation and released. Loaiza testified that after this incident Harold Cortes considered the car to be ruined as a drug smuggling vehicle and gave it to Parada. Registration of this vehicle was later changed to Parada 's name. 53 On July 18, 1991, DEA agents followed Loaiza in a gray Dodge rented by Parada from the Angie Street house to an apartment at the Stonefield Village complex. Loaiza entered the apartment empty-handed and left carrying a shoulder bag. When Loaiza was stopped by police officers and searched, he had $73,405 in cash and a digital pager. Loaiza identified this cash as drug proceeds received from Hubert, an associate of Harold Cortes who lived at the Stonefield Village complex. Loaiza was stopped en route to delivering the money to Cortes. A digital pager in Loaiza's possession reflected a coded message from Parada. 54 After the July 18, 1991, seizure of drug proceeds Ariel Ochoa instructed Loaiza to return to Miami, and he did so the next day. Law enforcement agents continued to follow Moreno and Parada. On August 6, 1991, agents saw Hernan Moreno and Parada arrive at a Captain Benny's restaurant around 6:50 p.m. Moreno made several calls from a pay telephone at the rear of the restaurant. The calls appeared to be made to a beeper. The two men then drove from the restaurant to an Exxon station next door and made more calls from a pay telephone there. They then returned to Captain Benny's and made more calls from the pay telephone there. Around 7:20 p.m. Moreno and Parada left the Captain Benny's restaurant and drove to the Stonefield Village apartment complex and went inside apartment # 1804. Fifteen minutes later the two men came out of the apartment, one of them carrying a purple gym bag. Moreno and Parada then drove to Harold Cortes's residence at 19803 JoanLeigh. Moreno carried a half-full brown grocery bag into the residence. A few minutes later Parada came out of the JoanLeigh residence carrying a purple gym bag. He got into a different car with two women and drove to 9658 Angie, where he took the gym bag into the residence. Fifteen minutes later Parada left the Angie residence without the gym bag with the two women and drove to a Two Pesos restaurant. There was no direct evidence of the contents of the grocery bag or the purple gym bag. 55 Pen registers from the three telephone lines that Parada had installed at his Rogerdale residence reflected 238 calls from Harold Cortes during the period from June 5, 1991, through January 15, 1992. In a telephone conversation intercepted pursuant to a Title III wiretap on March 5, 1992, Jaime Cardenas told Parada that he had papers to bring him. Wonda Cortes testified that she used the term papers in telephone conversations to refer to money. In a statement made to DEA agent Mike Schaefer after his arrest in August of 1992 Parada stated that Hernan Moreno had stopped him from walking down the hallway of one of the rented houses and told him that you don't need to see what's down there. Parada told agent Schaefer that at that point he knew Harold Cortes and Hernan Moreno were up to no good.