U.S. v. Blasco
| Citation | 702 F.2d 1315 |
| Decision Date | 18 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-5398,81-5398 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
| Parties | 13 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 479 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard E. BLASCO, Catalino Chambrot, Angel Cruz, Nestor Fernandez, Domingo Galvan, Sergio E. Galvan, Jose M. Garcia, Antonio Hernandez, Francisco Avila Hernandez, Raul Hernandez, Orlando Vidal Maldonado, Vincente Jose Martinez, Richard Mungin, Mitchell Earl Noatch, Francisco Paco Novales, Antonio Sanchez, Manuel Sanchez, Richard Allen Shank, Ralph Jesus Valdez, Juan Manuel Venagas, Norman Lee Young, Nelson Jamardo, Defendants-Appellants. |
Stanley Marcus, U.S. Atty., James G. McAdams, III, Asst. U.S. Atty., Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.
Ronald A. Dion, Miami, Fla., John Spottswood, Key West, Fla., for Shank & Jamardo and Blasco, Chambrot, Cruz, Fernandez, Garcia, R. Hernandez, Maldonado, Martinez, Mungin, Novales, A. Sanchez, A. Hernandez, Venegas & Young.
Nathan E. Eden, Key West, Fla., Bennie Lazzara, Jr., Tampa, Fla., for D. Galvan, S. Galvan, A. Hernandez, Valdez Noatch, F. Hernandez.
Walter & Keefe and Harold F. Keefe, Coral Gables, Fla., for M. Sanchez and R. Valdez.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before KRAVITCH, HATCHETT and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
Appellants appeal their convictions of conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute, raising a number of grounds for review. After a thorough review of the voluminous record in this case, we find no error, and therefore we AFFIRM.
In October 1980, United States Customs Agent Welch received information from a confidential informant that marijuana off-loading activities were occurring in the area of the Cohen estate on Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys. The Monroe County Sheriff's Department received similar confidential information concerning marijuana smuggling activities. During the following two weeks the area was subjected to periodic surveillance. During the late afternoon of November 14, 1980, Detectives Coletti and Barber of the Monroe County Sheriff's Department established a surveillance point at the Seven Mile Bridge. Barber observed two T-Crafts 1 proceeding south of the bridge. From a point just south of the bridge's drawspan they observed one of the boats as it passed beneath them, and Coletti was able to identify the sole occupant as Bernardo Valiente. 2 The first T-Craft was slightly ahead of Valiente's boat, and both were travelling in a northwesterly direction. After several miles, the boats navigated in different directions, the first toward Rocky Channel and the Gulf of Mexico, and Valiente's toward Big Pine Key. The two detectives maintained a moving surveillance of Valiente's boat. As Coletti reached the north end of the Spanish Harbor Bridge, which connects Spanish Harbor Keys to Big Pine Key, Valiente's T-Craft entered a canal on Big Pine Key, leading to the Cohen property.
Detective Coletti was then joined by Agent Welch. Several minutes later, the T-Craft piloted by Valiente emerged at the entrance to the canal. Although Valiente was the sole occupant at the time the boat entered the canal, it contained six or seven people upon its exit. The vessel first headed back toward Marathon, then turned north toward the Gulf of Mexico. Based on these observations, Welch instigated surveillance covering the Cohen estate by officers of both the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and United States Customs.
Two officers were stationed at Spanish Harbor Bridge; two others were to patrol the area from No Name Key to Spanish Harbor Key. Welch, Coletti, and Barber secreted themselves in a grove of mangroves near the locked gate on the road leading to the Cohen property. It was already dark by this time, and the weather was bad, raining intermittently.
The Cohen estate is bordered by water on two sides--the southern end of the residence rests upon a canal, and the western portion of the property extends to the Spanish Harbor Channel. The remaining two sides are enclosed by a chain-link fence, and, on the night in question, the gate across the road leading to the residence was padlocked.
Shortly after the officers positioned themselves, Welch, using a pair of night goggles, observed a man walking toward the gate that led to the property. The man spotted the officers in the bushes and asked who they were. The officers responded that they were "waiting for the others." Fearing that their surveillance was in jeopardy, the officers detained the man and removed him from the area. 3 The officers then resumed their surveillance.
After several hours, the officers moved through the trees to the edge of Spanish Harbor Channel, a point from which they could see the entrance to the canal leading to the Cohen property. Agent Welch continued to scan the canal entrance with his battery-powered nightscope. At times during the surveillance, Welch waded out into the water to get a better vantage point. At approximately 2:00 a.m. the officers heard a boat motor and determined that the sound was emanating from the canal at a point close to the Cohen house. After the engine noise ceased, Welch heard numerous "thuds, a hollow thudding." Roughly fifteen minutes later Welch heard the sound of another boat engine and waded out into the channel. Using his nightscope he discerned the outline of a boat approaching the canal that leads to the Cohen property. The thudding started again, and the officers returned to their original surveillance point on the road near the gate.
Welch left Coletti and Barber and walked across U.S. Highway 1 to a rock quarry where his supervisor, Major Seals, was maintaining surveillance. Welch informed Seals of what he had observed and of his belief that this was a marijuana off-loading operation. The decision was made to enter the Cohen property. Seals and Welch waited at the rock quarry for other officers who were then instructed to shut off the possible avenues of escape. Welch, Seals, Patrolman Leonard, and Detective Allen returned to where Coletti and Barber were waiting, and at about 3:30 a.m., the officers climbed over the chain-link fence and walked down the dirt road leading to the Cohen house. Observing a white van parked along the road, to avoid detection, they continued through the mangroves. Exiting at a point approximately fifty feet from the house, the officers could smell the pungent aroma of marijuana despite the heavy rain.
The six law enforcement officers were gathered together when they saw three men exit from a door to the left of the main garage door. When the three individuals were within ten feet of the officers Agent Welch identified himself and announced that all three were under arrest. Commotion ensued as the three men fled in different directions. Welch wrestled one to the ground 4 while Seals and Leonard apprehended the remaining two suspects. 5
Seals and Coletti then proceeded to the rear of the house. They could hear sounds of movement and through the windows could see people moving about. The officers announced their official presence and entered the house, arresting those inside. 6 At about the same time, Agent Welch rounded the corner of the house with one suspect in tow when he came upon an individual sitting on a rock wall near the garage door. Welch immediately placed this suspect, who did not resist, under arrest. 7 In the garage, Welch discovered a broken bale of marijuana and several book-sized packages of the contraband.
Next to the east wall of the house was a large delivery truck under which Leonard apprehended a hiding suspect. 8 After taking this suspect into the house, Leonard returned to the truck and arrested a second individual entangled in the bushes next to the truck. 9 The agents later discovered that the truck was loaded with marijuana bales.
At the time Welch first announced his presence to the three men who exited the building, Detective Barber saw another man running from the house in the direction of Spanish Harbor Channel. Barber gave chase for about 100 yards, and as the man entered the woods, Barber fired two warning shots. The man tripped and was apprehended. 10
As Barber returned to the house he heard the sound of an approaching boat. Barber and other agents went out to the dock and stood there hiding their faces. As the bow lines of the twin-engine T-Craft were handed to the agents, the four men aboard were arrested. 11 The T-Craft was loaded with eighty-three bales of marijuana. The suspects were handcuffed and taken to the living room where the other suspects were sitting on the floor.
While in the process of securing the premises, Agent Welch heard something move above him. In the garage bathroom, Welch and Seals discovered the entrance to an attic crawl-space. Welch announced his presence as a customs officer and that all those hiding within were under arrest. Although the testimony is a bit confused, the evidence showed that five men were arrested as they emerged from the crawl-space. 12
In all, twenty-three defendants in this case were arrested on the Cohen premises or as they stepped off the loaded T-Craft that docked there. Four other defendants were arrested during the early morning hours of the 15th on a single-engine T-Craft that was stopped for proceeding without running lights by Florida patrolmen. 13 These four defendants were taken to the Cohen property because the officers suspected that they were involved with the off-load operation. Later, at about 6:30 a.m., the final two defendants were arrested aboard the "Miss Lucy," a lobster-crawfishing boat, as it idled in the Spanish Harbor Channel. 14 These two men were also taken back to the Cohen house.
All the defendants were detained in the living room and kitchen of the residence before they were transported to the Sheriff's office in Key West for processing. Evidence at trial...
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