Opinion ID: 785776
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Suitcase Transports

Text: 8 Bonnie Gahr testified that she had already known Gaskin for almost six years when, in the spring of 1998, he proposed that she fly to San Diego to pick up a suitcase containing marijuana and transport it back to him in Rochester. Gaskin promised to pay Gahr $1,000 or two pounds of marijuana for her efforts and to cover her travel expenses. Gahr accepted the offer and, following Gaskin's instructions, she flew to San Diego where she met with a man, Mundahla, who packed fifteen to thirty plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana into a suitcase. Upon Gahr's return to Rochester, Gaskin promptly came to her home to retrieve the suitcase, traveling in a black pickup truck driven by an African-American male. In a post-conviction proffer session with the government, defendant Castle would identify this man as Sammy. 9 Throughout the spring and summer of 1998, Gahr traveled between Rochester and San Diego some five to ten times, transporting marijuana in suitcases for Gaskin on each occasion. On two or three of these trips, Gahr also acted as a reverse courier, carrying sums of cash as large as $25,000 from Gaskin to Mundahla.