United States v. Bucio-Cabrales

635 F. App'x 324
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 14, 2016
DocketNo. 14-3991
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 635 F. App'x 324 (United States v. Bucio-Cabrales) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Bucio-Cabrales, 635 F. App'x 324 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

Danny Bucio-Cabrales appeals his convictions for conspiracy to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(l)(A)(vii), and 846, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and 846. Bucio-Cabrales asks this court to vacate his convictions, which he argues the government obtained with the use of evidence discovered during an unconstitutional search of his residence. He also argues that his sentence is improper because the government did not provide evidence sufficient to support two sentence enhancements that he received due to his leadership role in the drug conspiracy and his possession of a dangerous weapon. For the reasons given below, we affirm Bucio-Cabrales’s convictions and sentence.

I

A

In January 2013, Bucio-Cabrales and Misael Cortez-Torres moved into an apartment located at 4020 Migration Lane in Columbus, Ohio. Working under the direction of a man known only as “Pablo,” Bucio-Cabrales and Cortez-Torres spent the next five-months unloading, inspecting, weighing, packaging, and storing large amounts of marijuana and cocaine at 4020 Migration Lane before removing the drugs from the apartment to deliver them to six drug dealers in the Columbus area, among them Jimi Ward and Pablo Pace. Cortez-Torres and yet another co-conspirator, Humberto Brambilar-Chavez, also used a second Columbus residence, 6198 Deewood Loop West, to store and package cocaine. Between January and May of 2013, Bucio-Cabrales and Cortez-Torres received and disposed of between one and two hundred pounds of marijuana at the Migration Lane residence each week. They also sold between seven and nine kilograms of cocaine during that time.

In early 2013, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agents stationed in Columbus received a tip from an informant that Pablo was trafficking in marijuana and cocaine in the area. Agents corroborated the tip with information from DEA agents in California. Working with their informant, agents organized and observed a drug transaction in which the informant purchased marijuana from Pablo, who was driven to the exchange by Bucio-Cabrales. Agents then followed Bucio-Cabrales and Pablo back to 4020 Migration Lane. In the weeks that followed, agents surveilled Bu-cio-Cabrales, Pablo, and Cortez-Torres, spending considerable time watching 4020 Migration Lane, where they believed Bu-cio-Cabrales and Cortez-Torres lived. During their surveillance, agents saw Bu-cio-Cabrales and Cortez-Torres engage in activity indicative of drug trafficking, such as receiving suspicious deliveries at 4020 Migration Lane, transporting unknown vehicles to the apartment before loading them and returning them to parking lots, repeatedly switching rental cars, and delivering items during short meetings at residences and shopping centers.

Based on information gathered during this surveillance, as well as on agents’ observations of Cortez-Torres as he arranged and executed a drug deal with the government’s informant on May 8, 2013, DEA agents applied for a warrant to search 4020 Stelzer Road, which they be[327]*327lieved was the correct street address for the apartment at 4020 Migration Lane. The warrant application included an affidavit signed by Agent Anne Durbin, a Franklin County, Ohio, officer assigned to the DEA, in which Agent Durbin detailed her extensive experience in drug investigations. Agent Durbin stated that in her experience, drug traffickers often store the fruits and instrumentalities of their illegal activities in their residences:

Your Affiant’s training and experience ... form the basis of the [following] opinions and conclusions^],... That it is common for drug traffickers to maintain multiple premises from which their illegal business is conducted. Drug traffickers also store narcotics, narcotics proceeds and records relating to the trafficking of narcotics at their resi-dences____ That persons involved in large scale drug trafficking conceal within them residence ... caches of drugs, large amounts of currency ... and/or proceeds of drug sales____

In addition, the warrant affidavit stated that “6198 Deewood Loop West Columbus, Ohio and [40201] Stelzer Rd Columbus, Ohio have been identified as locations associated with the storage and/or distribution or frequented associates [sic] by members of a large-scale trafficking organization being investigated by DEA Columbus and the Franklin County Drug Task Force,” and recounted the following events involving “a male Hispanic,” later identified as Cortea-Torres, on May 8, 2013:

On May 08, 2013 agents were contacted by a [confidential source (“CS”)] who informed agents that he/she had received a call from a male Hispanic requesting to meet the CS at the Home Depot on Brice Rd. North- of IS70. Agents monitored a call back to the male Hispanic by the CS. It was determined that this male Hispanic was a member of a [drug-trafficking organization (“DTO”) ] that the agents had been investigating since December 2012.
During this call the CS agreed to meet with the male Hispanic at the Home Depot lot— Agents monitored the meet— During this meet agents positively identified the male Hispanic as a facilitator within the DTO the agents had been investigating. The male Hispanic told the CS that [he] had ten kilograms of cocaine which needed to be sold within five days. The male Hispanic then in substance asked the CS if the CS could take some of the kilograms within the next hour.
Following this meet, surveillance followed the male Hispanic to the address of 6198.Deewood Loop West. Surveillance observed the same male Hispanic from the meet, exit the front door of 6198 Deewood Loop West. At this time the male Hispanic placed a call to the CS stating that he “had it” and that the male Hispanic did not want to return to his house with “it.” The CS stated that the CS could not meet for an hour.
Surveillance units continued to observe the male Hispanic and observe him park and enter the address of 4020 Stelzer Rd. For months agents have observed male Hispanic utilize this residence and believe this to be his permanent residence.
Agents had the CS contact the male Hispanic and confirm [he] was en route to the predetermined meet location____ Surveillance units observed the male Hispanic leave the residence of 4020 [328]*328Stelzer Rd and go directly to meet the CS.
Agents observed and monitored the meet between the CS and the male Hispanic. The male Hispanic got out of his vehicle and entered the CS vehicle. The male Hispanic had a kilogram of cocaine tucked in the waistband of his pants and under his shirt. When the male Hispanic got into the CS vehicle the male Hispanic handed the kilogram of cocaine to the CS. The CS agreed to pay the male Hispanic by 7:00 pm ... and requested that [he] bring the CS two additional kilograms of cocaine at that time. The male Hispanic agreed....
Surveillance units observed the male Hispanic leave the meet location and drive directly back to the address of 6198 Deewood Loop West. A short time later, surveillance units observed the male Hispanic leave the address of 6198 Deewood Loop West.

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Bluebook (online)
635 F. App'x 324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bucio-cabrales-ca6-2016.