United States v. Cambrelen

29 F. Supp. 2d 120, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18824, 1998 WL 833842
District Court, E.D. New York·Decided December 1, 1998·No. CR 96-1044(S-2)·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NICKERSON, District Judge.

By memorandum and order dated August 27, 1998, familiarity with which is assumed, the court denied the motions of the six defendants to set aside guilty verdicts. The court now writes to set forth its findings and conclusions as to the sentences.

I

Five counts of the superseding indictment were before the jury. Four of the defendants, Ryan Cambrelen (“Ryan”), Joel Vasquez, Jose Rivera, and Eddie Brown (together “the four main defendants”) were charged in and found guilty on all five counts, (1) conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine for over two and a half years from January 1994 to November 9, 1996 (denominated Count One in the superseding indictment), (2) conspiring during the same period to obstruct interstate commerce by robbing several residential apartments in the Bronx, New York, and a warehouse hr Queens, New York (denominated Count Two), (3) attempting on November 9, 1996, to possess with intent to distribute cocaine (denominated Count Three), (4) using and carrying a firearm in each of the two conspiracies charged in Counts One and Two (denominated Count Seven), and (5) using and carrying a firearm in the November 9, 1996 attempt count charged in Count Three (denominated Count Eight). There was ample evidence to prove all the elements of these five crimes.

The two other defendants, Jesus Colon and Ottoniel Cambrelen (“Ottoniel”), were charged in all five counts, but were found not guilty by the jury of the conspiracy counts. They were found guilty of the November 9, 1996 attempt count (Count Three) and of using and carrying a firearm during that attempt (Count Eight).

II

The evidence showed that the four main defendants were engaged from January 1994 until July 1996 in robbing various dwellings in New York City, chiefly apartments where they expected to find drugs. While the four were assiduous, they were not notably successful in their endeavors, managing to obtain over a period of two and a half years some two kilos of cocaine.

By the fall of 1996 the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (the “Task Force”) had taken an interest in the activities of the four. On July 30, 1996 one Luis Castellano had been arrested by New York City detec *122 tives for his participation in an April 1996 robbery in the Bronx in which defendants Ryan, Vasquez, and Brown had taken part. Castellano admitted to involvement in other robberies with the group and eventually pleaded guilty pursuant to a cooperation agreement and testified for the government at trial.

In October 1996 the Task Force arranged for two confidential informants to meet with Ryan and Rivera. The meeting took place on October 29, 1996 and was captured on videotape. One of the informants, a Puerto Rican, was acquainted with Ryan and introduced the other informant (hereafter “the informant”), who posed as a Colombian drug dealer.

The informant told Ryan and Rivera that he was responsible for organizing the distribution of some 70 to 80 kilos of cocaine arriving in New York from Columbia in about a week; that he had been cheated in the past by those sending the cocaine and wished to have it stolen from the stash location and sold; that he wanted Ryan and his group for the job; and that he would furnish Ryan with the address of the location and a key to it to facilitate the robbery. Ryan said that there would be six persons to carry out the robbery. He agreed with the informant that the six would receive six eighths of the proceeds of the robbery and the two informants two eighths.

On November 8, 1996 the informant had another videotaped meeting with Ryan and Rivera, and told them that a truck would arrive at the location the next morning, November 9, 1990, that “eighty kilos are coming,” and that he would have the key to the location. The informant cast doubt on whether the “boss” sending the cocaine had given him a true description of what would be found at the stash location by saying the boss was “very distrustful.” He “sometimes” told the informant that there would be only one person inside the location but, as the informant put it, “I go there, and it turns out there are four guys there.” The informant summed up the circumstances into which defendants would be entering by saying, “you know Colombians are not easy.”

The informant asked Ryan how much he would be paid for his “stuff’ and whether “you guys will sell it for me.” Ryan responded that they would sell it “for 16,” meaning sixteen thousand dollars per kilo, but that “it takes time to sell it.” To the informant’s query “you’ll sell five and call me,” Ryan replied “right.” The informant then said “call me and give me money and then you call me again.” Again Ryan responded “right.”

On the next morning, November 9, 1996, the confidential informant met with Ryan and gave him the key to the stash location, an undercover warehouse. In the meantime the Task Force had placed there 5 kilos of real cocaine and about 50 kilos of fake cocaine and had installed video cameras inside and outside the warehouse.

Later in the morning the six defendants (Colon and Ottoniel had come from Puerto Rico the previous day) went to the warehouse, three in a van and three in a car. Ryan and Brown went inside. The other four waited outside, Vasquez and Ottoniel in the van and Rivera and Colon in the car. Ryan and Brown were then arrested inside the warehouse and Rivera and Colon outside. Vasquez drove the van away at high speed, followed by police cars. When Vasquez tried to make a U-turn the van’s tires blew out and the police arrested Vasquez and Ottoniel.

Ill

As this court stated in its memorandum and order dated August 27, 1998, the evidence before the jury was sufficient to sustain the verdict finding Ryan, Vasquez, Rivera, and Brown guilty of conspiring to possess and attempting to possess the cocaine in the warehouse with intent to distribute it. The jury found Colon and Otto-niel guilty of the warehouse attempt charge but not the conspiracy charge.

The terms of imprisonment imposed by the court on the six defendants and those urged by the government and recommended in the presentence report were as shown below:

*123 Defendant Sentence Imposed By The Government’s Position & PSR Recommendation
Ryan Cambrelen 535 months 660 months
Joel Vasquez 660 months Life
Jose Rivera Life Life
Eddie Brown 510 months Life
Jesus Colon 180 months 215 months
Ottoniel Cambrelen 180 months 215 months

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United States v. Cambrelen, 29 F. Supp. 2d 120, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18824, 1998 WL 833842 (E.D.N.Y. 1998).

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