U.S. v. Abreu
| Decision Date | 08 October 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-1010,91-1010 |
| Citation | 952 F.2d 1458 |
| Parties | 35 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 162 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Ramon Alfredo ABREU, a/k/a Carlos Juan, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
William G. Small, for appellant.
Kenneth P. Madden, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Lincoln C. Almond, U.S. Atty., was on brief, for appellee.
Before CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge, BROWN * and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judges.
Defendant-appellant Ramon Abreu (Abreu) appeals his conviction on charges of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and related firearm possession charges.
We summarize the facts in the traditional fashion, taking the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution. United States v. Ortiz-Alarcon, 917 F.2d 651, 653 (1st Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2035, 114 L.Ed.2d 120 (1991); United States v. Jimenez-Perez, 869 F.2d 9, 10 (1st Cir.1989).
From September 1989 through February 1990, federal, state and local law enforcement agents investigated a cocaine trafficking ring in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. As part of the investigation, Detective Omar Frappier (Frappier) of the Woonsocket Police Department worked undercover as a real estate agent renting apartments. The police were assisted by Willie Wilson (Wilson), a police informant, and by Pedro Martel (Martel), an hireling of Abreu who had begun cooperating with the police in January 1990.
Defendant headed an organization that sold cocaine from several apartments in various neighborhoods of Woonsocket that had been modified to facilitate drug trafficking. There were features common to each of the apartments. Each had entrance doors with removable crossbeams mounted on them. The doors had small holes for the exchange of drugs for money. In addition, the toilets in each of the apartments had been ground out so that no water could be held in the basin. The altered toilets provided a more efficient means of disposing of drugs in case of a police raid. The apartments contained only a few chairs and a table, but no beds. All of the apartments were rented under various fictitious names and were paid for in cash.
On September 15, 1989, Detective Frappier rented the third floor apartment at 89 Chestnut Street in Woonsocket to Martel. Martel used a fictitious name to rent the apartment. Wilson and defendant were also present. Defendant did not speak with Detective Frappier, but he did give Martel $500 in cash for rent for the apartment.
Martel helped defendant barricade and reinforce the entrance doors of the Chestnut Street apartment. Approximately a week after the rental, Martel observed that the bottom of the toilet had been chiseled out. Shortly thereafter, Martel and others worked at the apartment selling half-gram bags of cocaine through a hole in the apartment door for forty dollars each. The cocaine sellers were paid $100 each for a twelve hour shift and generally worked in groups of two. At the end of each shift, defendant or William Feliz-Acosta 1 would return to the apartment to settle the accounts. Martel said that the cocaine sales ranged from $800 to $1,500 each night. At the end of each night Martel would turn over all of the money to defendant or Feliz-Acosta.
Wilson testified that he purchased cocaine for personal use from the Chestnut Street apartment several times during the fall of 1989. On October 25, 1989, Detective Edward Roy of the Woonsocket Police Department made an undercover purchase of a half-gram of cocaine for forty dollars through the hole in the Chestnut Street apartment door. He never saw who sold him the cocaine.
During the period from September 22 through October 6, 1989, Frappier collected rent for the Chestnut Street apartment from Martel or his girlfriend, Maria Vaz. Thereafter, defendant paid the Chestnut Street rent to Frappier until November 28, 1989, when defendant closed the Chestnut Street operation. Frappier inspected the Chestnut Street apartment on December 5, 1989, the day after defendant returned the keys to him. Frappier observed that the apartment door had been barricaded, that a hole had been cut through the bottom of the door and that the toilet basin had been drilled out.
On October 30, 1989, defendant rented an apartment at 391 Third Avenue in Woonsocket from Detective Frappier. He used a fictitious name to rent the apartment and paid Frappier $800 in cash. He was accompanied by Wilson. On November 20, 1989, defendant paid Frappier $1,100 in cash as rental payments for the Chestnut Street and Third Avenue apartments. Frappier issued receipts under two fictitious names at the request of defendant. During this November 20 meeting Frappier asked defendant for some cocaine for his personal use. Defendant instructed Frappier and Wilson to follow him to a dwelling at 34 Miller Lane in Woonsocket. At defendant's direction, Frappier waited outside and Wilson went into the apartment with defendant. Defendant emerged from the apartment with four half-gram bags of cocaine. He gave these bags to Wilson and directed him to give them to Frappier free of charge.
In the fall or early winter of 1989, Martel rented an apartment at 43 Miller Lane in Woonsocket. He barricaded and cut holes in the apartment's entrance door and also chiseled out the toilet bowl. Martel initially rented the apartment for someone else, but the deal fell through. He then transferred the apartment to defendant for $1,500. On February 1, 1990, Special Agent Russell C. Holske, Jr. (Holske) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) bought a forty dollar bag of cocaine through a hole in the entrance door of the Miller Lane apartment. He was assisted by Martel, who by that time had become a paid informant.
On November 28, 1989, defendant and Feliz-Acosta rented an apartment at 136 Fourth Avenue in Woonsocket from Detective Frappier. This apartment is located within 175 feet of a public elementary school. Feliz-Acosta signed the rental lease using a fictitious name and took possession of the keys. Rental payments were made at different times by either Feliz-Acosta or defendant. Wilson was present when this transaction took place. Alterations, similar to those in the other apartments rented by defendant's operations, were made to the entrance door and the toilet bowl. Here, too, there was almost no furniture in the apartment.
Detective Frappier met with defendant on January 18, 1990, for the purpose of collecting rents for the Third and Fourth Avenue apartments. During the meeting Frappier questioned defendant about the chiseled-out toilet at Chestnut Street. Defendant told Frappier that it was an easy way to dispose of drugs during a police raid. Defendant also told Frappier that he had five or six people working for him. Frappier then asked defendant for two bags of cocaine. Defendant made a telephone call to Feliz-Acosta, who later arrived with cash and two bags of cocaine, which he gave to defendant. Defendant then paid Frappier $840 in cash as rental payments for the Third and Fourth Avenue apartments and also gave Frappier the two bags of cocaine.
Defendant and Frappier met again on January 24, 1990. Frappier asked defendant for two additional bags of cocaine. Defendant left Frappier and was observed by surveillance officers entering and leaving the dwelling at 136 Fourth Avenue. Defendant returned with two bags of cocaine which he gave to Frappier.
On February 1, 1990, Special Agent Holske of the DEA, with the assistance of Martel, made an undercover purchase of a forty dollar bag of cocaine through a hole in the entrance door at the 136 Fourth Avenue apartment.
On January 16, 1990, Special Agent Matthew Horace (Horace) of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and Special Agent Robert Botelho (Botelho) of the DEA met with defendant and Feliz-Acosta in Woonsocket. Posing as gun dealers, the agents attempted to sell firearms to defendant in exchange for cocaine. Defendant sought to purchase pistols to send back to the Dominican Republic. He told the agents that he already had a sawed-off shotgun and several other firearms for the protection of the six or seven people who worked for him. On February 11, 1990, the undercover agents again met with defendant. An agreement was reached whereby defendant was to exchange one ounce of cocaine, valued at approximately $1,500, for each pistol the agent provided; no sales were ever consummated from this deal.
On other occasions defendant bought and used firearms in his cocaine business. In the summer of 1979, Martel sold him a .357 caliber handgun. During that summer Martel also saw defendant in possession of .22 caliber semiautomatic and .38 caliber handguns. Defendant gave the .22 caliber gun to his workers to use as protection. In the fall of 1979, defendant held a sawed-off shotgun to Wilson's face when the two argued about money in connection with drug sales and purchases by Wilson. Wilson also saw a .38 caliber handgun in defendant's Social Street apartment and a .45 caliber firearm on his person.
On February 6, 1990, federal agents executed search warrants at the Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue and Miller Lane apartments. Inside the Third Avenue apartment, DEA Agent Lisa Farrell seized a plastic bag containing approximately fifty grams of 92% pure cocaine; three kilogram size wrappers used for packaging cocaine, each containing cocaine residue; a triple beam scale; and other paraphernalia used in cocaine packaging and distribution. Special Agent Brian Glynn of the BATF seized five firearms and ammunition: a shotgun and four loose shotgun rounds, two .45 caliber semiautomatic pistols one of which was loaded, a loaded .22 caliber...
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