Opinion ID: 790110
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: June 20, 2001 Search of the Basement Apartment

Text: 9 Later that day, agents searched the basement apartment where the June 7, 2001 transaction had taken place. In the ceiling area of a rear storage closet off a bedroom down the hallway, agents recovered 3.8 grams of a mixture containing cocaine base, commonly known as crack, and 18.7 grams of mixtures containing cocaine on a ceiling joist. Tr. at 315-16. The Government's drug trafficking expert testified that 3.8 grams would border either user or distribution quantity, Tr. at 417, and 18.7 grams of cocaine would be in the neighborhood of a distribution quantity of cocaine, Tr. at 401. In that same storage area, approximately four to five feet from the drugs, the agents recovered a Mossburg shotgun with a sawed-off barrel. The shotgun had been modified to accommodate a pistol grip, and a pistol grip was recovered next to the shotgun. Agent Walker explained: The pistol grip has been made to fit onto that gun. The bolt that you see coming out of the end of the shotgun does not appear to be adequate to secure that pistol grip on the shotgun. Tr. at 358. He further testified that he and some other agents briefly looked at it, and it seemed like ... you would need maybe a different type of bolt. Tr. at 359. 10 Also recovered near the shotgun was a white sock that contained four shotgun shells. Mr. Castillo's fingerprints were not recovered on the shotgun shells or the shotgun, but the Government's fingerprint expert testified that guns and ammunition are not very receptive surfaces for leaving fingerprints. Tr. at 368. A drug trafficking expert explained that it was not unusual for somebody involved in drug trafficking to have an unloaded or loaded weapon because drug traffickers commonly utilize firearms or weapons to protect their drugs and protect their drug proceeds, the amount of money that they have at their location where they're selling drugs from, from other drug traffickers or gang members who may want to rob them or break in and steal their drugs or drug money. So it's basically used as protection. Tr. at 415-16. 11 Up towards the door area of this back closet area, the agents also recovered a box. Tr. at 291-92. This box contained a variety of drug paraphernalia, including weights and scales, razors, plastic baggies, a type of cutting agent that would be used to put into drugs to make it greater in quantity, Tr. at 292, and a drug ledger, Tr. at 412. The drug trafficking expert testified that these are tools of the drug trade. The agents also recovered from the apartment a number of pieces of mail, documents and photographs indicating that the apartment was in fact Mr. Castillo's home. For example, the address label on one piece of mail read: Pedro Castillo, 3328 West 65th Place, house basement, Chicago, Illinois 60629. Tr. at 324.