Opinion ID: 176473
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conspiracy to Commit the Brings To Offense

Text: Flores-Blanco also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for conspiring to commit the brings to offense. He relies primarily on Lopez, but, as we explained in Hernandez-Orellana, nothing in Lopez can be read as transforming the traditional elements of a criminal conspiracy. Hernandez-Orellana, 539 F.3d at 1006. The evidence was sufficient to prove those traditional elements in Flores-Blanco's case. A reasonable jury could infer an agreement to engage in criminal activity between Flores-Blanco, Fernandez, and the smuggler in Mexico from their considerable coordination in positions and timing using cell phones and hand signals. See United States v. Iriarte-Ortega, 113 F.3d 1022, 1024 (9th Cir.1997) (Coordination between conspirators is strong circumstantial proof of agreement; as the degree of coordination rises, the likelihood that their actions were driven by an agreement increases.). The Mexican smuggler's assistance to Portillo-Mendoza in crossing the fence was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. See Hernandez-Orellana, 539 F.3d at 1010; see also id. at 1007 ([I]t matters only that a co-conspirator commit the overt act, not necessarily that the accused herself does so.). There also was sufficient evidence that Flores-Blanco had the requisite intent to commit the substantive crime, id. at 1007 (internal quotation marks omitted), specifically, that he knew that Portillo-Mendoza was an alien and acted with the intent to violate United States immigration laws, see United States v. Gonzalez-Flores, 418 F.3d 1093, 1098 (9th Cir. 2005). The prior acts evidence was probative of Flores-Blanco's knowledge and intent in the present case, as was Flores-Blanco's abrupt departure from the White Apartments when he saw Agent Sedano. See, e.g., United States v. Baker, 256 F.3d 855, 863 (9th Cir.2001) (inferring knowledge of a package's illicit contents in part from the defendant's nervous behavior and flight when confronted by the detectives). We therefore reject Flores-Blanco's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence for his conspiracy conviction.