U.S.A v. Celis
| Decision Date | 18 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-3075,No. 07-3078,No. 07-3076,07-3075,07-3076,07-3078 |
| Parties | United States of America, Appelleev.Jose Antonio Celis, also known as Calvo, Appellant |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia) |
Carmen D. Hernandez, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant Anayibe R. Valderama.
Elita C. Amato, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant Jose A. Celis.
Manuel J. Retureta, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant Juan D. Giraldo.
Mary E. Mogavero, Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellee. With her on the brief were Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Teresa A. Wallbaum, Appellate Counsel, and Tritia Yuen, Trial Attorney. Roy W. McLeese III, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia No. 03cr00554-03
Before: Rogers and Griffith, Circuit Judges, and SlLBERMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.
Opinion for the Court filed Per Curiam.
Appellants Jose Antonio Celis, Juan Diego Giraldo, and Anayibe Rojas Valderama were convicted by a jury of conspiring to import cocaine and to manufacture and distribute cocaine for import into the United States, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952, 959, 960, and 963. The events underlying these convictions occurred principally in Colombia, South America. Because appellants' actions were tied to a terrorizing drug trafficking organization in Colombia, the district court issued a protective order to ensure the safety of certain government witnesses. Appellants contend that the protective order and other rulings by the district court require reversal of their convictions.1 Specifically, appellants contend that theprotective order allowing government witnesses to testify under pseudonyms violated their confrontation and effective counsel rights under the Sixth Amendment. They further contend that their ability to prepare for cross-examination was impeded by the government's belated production of discovery materials it was obligated to disclose. Additionally appellants contend they were denied a fair trial because the district court rejected their objections to discovery violations by the government, denied requests for a continuance, and failed to require translation of discovery materials from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish. Finally, they contend the district court erred by denying a motion for severance, admitting audio recordings and statements in a video recording, finding no prejudicial variance between the indictment and evidence presented at trial, ruling there was sufficient evidence to support the verdict, and denying a motion for a new trial.
We hold that in issuing and managing the protective order the district court accommodated the government's law enforcement interests in a manner that did not impermissibly intrude upon appellants' Sixth Amendment rights and did not result in prejudice that would require reversal of their convictions. We further hold that appellants' procedural and evidentiary challenges are unpersuasive. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of conviction.
The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaras de Colombia ("FARC") is the most significant drug trafficking organization in Colombia. An area in Colombia known as the Caguan region is a major source of the FARC's cocaine production. The 14th Front, a division of the FARC, controls the region, forcing local peasants to sell their coca crop exclusively to the organization.
At the time of the events in this case, the 14th Front was commanded by Fabian Ramirez. Under orders from Ramirez, Anayibe Rojas Valderama served as the leader and chief financial officer for the 14th Front's drug trafficking operations in the Caguan region. In her position, Valderama was responsible for ensuring that peasants in the Caguan region sold cocaine base only to the FARC. She made frequent trips throughout the region to exchange pesos for cocaine base. After the cocaine base was acquired, Valderama arranged for it to be delivered to different processing facilities where it was converted into cocaine powder. She often traveled to these laboratories to observe operations. once the cocaine was in powder form, buyers would fly in to small airstrips near the laboratories to take possession of the cocaine with Valderama overseeing the exchange.
In 2001 Jose Antonio Celis, a drug trafficker who had done business with the FARC ten years prior, sought to make contact with the FARC with hopes of another partnership. Celis contacted Rocio Alvarez, an associate of Valderama's who would later become a DEA cooperating informant, and told her that he wished to obtain cocaine from the FARC. Celis informed Alvarez that he still had drug contacts throughout the world. He proposed a scheme in which he would ship FARC cocaine via boat to panama and then on to the United States in containers. Celis asked Alvarez to deliver his proposal to her FARC contacts.
Alvarez contacted Juan Diego Giraldo, a drug trafficker with ties to Fabian Ramirez, and communicated the Celis proposal to him. Giraldo then arranged a meeting between Alvarez and Fabian Ramirez, at which Alvarez gave Ramirez a letter outlining Celis's plan. Giraldo later contacted Alvarez and asked her to tell Celis that he should travel to San Vicente del Carguan to meet with Ramirez. While the parties did not reachan agreement at this initial meeting, Giraldo arranged a second meeting six or seven months later in which an agreement was reached. Under the agreement, Celis would transport 1, 400 kilograms of cocaine to the United States. The cocaine was to come from the Caguan region where Valderama led the FARC's drug operation. Mr. Celis would not purchase the entire load; other investors included Fabian Ramirez and Valderama.
The plan proved only partially successful. Celis did receive cocaine from the FARC and sold some of it in Miami, Florida. But a portion of the shipment was lost in Panama where, as Celis later recounted to Alvarez, there were "some problems" and "even deaths." Apparently some of the drugs were seized by law enforcement. When Celis did not promptly repay the FARC investors due to the loss, Valderama complained to Alvarez that if he did not pay his debts, he would be killed. After hearing this news, Alvarez arranged a meeting with Giraldo and Celis. At the meeting Celis gave Giraldo newspaper accounts from Panama showing that drugs had been seized by the law and asked Giraldo to show the articles to Ramirez and Valderama. Celis later told Alvarez that he was trying to pay Ramirez and Valderama back through new shipments of drugs to the United States.
Later in mid-2003, Celis invited Rodrigo Jardinero (a/k/a "Lechuga"), a Colombian drug trafficker with whom Celis had a longstanding business relationship, to a meeting in Panama. Among others, Valderama, Celis, and Giraldo were present at this meeting. Valderama led the discussion and told Celis that "he owed us a lot of money." Though Jardinero was initially reluctant to work with Valderama, he agreed to assist in transporting some cocaine to Charleston, South Carolina and Miami in order to help Celis. Celis eventually sent Jardinero two different loads of cocaine; Jardinero sent 40 kilos on to Charleston, but they were not successfully received by hiscontacts there. Jardinero did successfully send 41 kilos to Miami.
Valderama also worked with traffickers other than Celis and Giraldo to sell FARC cocaine. A drug trafficker named Gordo Andres brokered a deal with Valderama in which she would provide FARC cocaine to a trafficker known as "El Burro," who would arrange for the cocaine to be sent to a laboratory near Venezuela and then on to the United States. Pursuant to that agreement, Andres and El Burro both made trips to meet Valderama in the Caguan region and purchased a total of 1, 600 kilograms worth of cocaine. Valderama counted their money and authorized the release of the cocaine. Later, after El Burro and Andres had a falling out, El Burro turned to Alvarez to broker a deal for him to purchase additional cocaine from the FARC. Alvarez, with the assistance of Giraldo, put El Burro in contact with Valderama. This time El Burro sent a pilot to pick up 420 kilograms of cocaine from Valderama.
in addition to the schemes described above, the appellants in this case formed a number of other plans to traffic cocaine out of the Caguan region that never came to fruition. For example, Valderama and Ramirez hatched a plan in November of2002 in which they would provide Gordo Andres with cocaine for him to sell to enemies of the FARC, only to later steal it back so that Giraldo could ship it to the United States. Later, in May 2003, Giraldo and Celis asked Andres to invest in a plan to ship cocaine to the United States, but that deal fell through when Andres refused to participate. And while Andres initially agreed to assist Celis in another deal to purchase 3, 000 kilograms of 14th Front cocaine to ship to a drug boss in Mexico, that deal also fell through when Andres went missing.
Valderama's role in distributing FARC cocaine ultimately came to an end on February 10, 2004, when Colombian armysoldiers raided her farm and captured her. Various items were seized including six kilograms of cocaine, thirteen weapons, money, military uniforms, a satellite telephone, a video camera, and several documents one of which included a phone number and the handwritten name "Flaco," which was Giraldo's alias.
Valderama, Ramirez, Celis, and Giraldo were indicted for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing or intending that it be imported into the United States in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952, 959, 960, and 963. The district court denied Giraldo's pre-trial motions for severance and Valderama, Giraldo, and Celis were tried...
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