Opinion ID: 2959836
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Williams Search

Text: Members of the same investigatory team intercepted telephone calls revealing that defendant Daniel Williams planned to travel to New York City on June 1, 2004, and to return with cocaine. During the first call, which took place on April 23, 2004, Williams and codefendant Redmond McKinnon, who is not a party to this appeal, discussed the quality of specified quantities of cocaine. The second call, also between McKinnon and Williams, was intercepted on April 28, 2004. During this call, McKinnon relayed to Williams that the price of a kilogram of cocaine purchased from co-defendant Affis Cruz, who also is not a party to this appeal, would be $25,000. McKinnon indicated that defendant Howard had said that the price of a kilogram of cocaine was $24,800 when purchased from a different supplier. During the call, Williams stated that he was “tinkering in his lab,” suggesting that he was changing cocaine into crack cocaine or bagging cocaine for resale. Howard, 406 F. Supp. 2d at 220. During the third call, placed on May 31, 2004, Williams told Cruz that he wanted four kilograms of cocaine and that he would be prepared to pick up the drugs the next day, June 1, 2004. These phone calls, coupled with other background intelligence obtained over the course of a long-term investigation, provided the basis for surveillance of Williams, which was initiated on June 1, 2004, when Williams left his place of work at approximately 6 a.m. in a black GMC Envoy. The investigatory team followed the vehicle and, after briefly losing sight of it, observed -6- it parked and unattended at an address in Schenectady, New York, known to be the residence of Williams’ mother. Seeing only the Envoy parked at the residence, the investigatory team deduced that Williams might have traded his vehicle for the gold Dodge Stratus the team knew to be registered to Williams’ mother. This belief was reinforced when Williams’ mother was observed driving her son’s Envoy. Based upon three additional telephone calls between Williams and his co-defendants intercepted that day, all of which concerned cocaine transactions, see id. at 220-21, the investigatory team surmised that he was traveling to New York City to procure cocaine, and that he would be returning to Schenectady that same evening. Accordingly, the team set up surveillance northbound on the Thruway, which they inferred from the intercepted telephone calls was the route Williams would be taking home from New York City. Investigatory team leaders, this time in consultation with the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, again decided to devise a ruse to lure Williams away from his vehicle so that investigators could conduct a search. No attempt was made to secure a warrant. At approximately 10:40 p.m., a member of the investigatory team observed a man whom she believed to be Williams at a rest area in Plattekill, New York, driving the gold Stratus registered to Williams’ mother. At the direction of team supervisors, two uniformed New York State Troopers stopped Williams’ vehicle. When asked to identify himself, Williams provided his driver’s license. The troopers took Williams to their barracks purportedly for the investigation of alleged criminal activity, this time a drive-off at a gas station involving a vehicle matching the description of the gold Stratus Williams was driving. While Williams was being questioned at the barracks, members of the investigatory team -7- searched his vehicle, including its trunk, and found two kilograms of cocaine and $50,000. The investigators seized the cocaine and the currency, neither of which was secreted in the trunk, and then closed the trunk and secured the vehicle. No damage was done to Williams’ vehicle, and the troopers returned Williams to it as soon as they were notified the search was completed. Williams was not arrested. Although he does not contest the issue of when he was provided with notice that the search occurred, the government argues that Williams was informed that the police had searched his vehicle and seized cocaine and currency when he received a copy of the complaint against him on June 9, 2004.