United States v. Velazquez, No. 12-3992 (3d Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseAfter receiving a tip in 2005, the DEA began monitoring calls between a confidential informant and Velazquez, tracked co-defendants, recovered nine kilograms of cocaine, and arrested the two co-defendants. An arrest warrant issued for Velazquez in August 2005. The DEA declared Velazquez a fugitive and turned his apprehension over to the U.S. Marshals, which entered Velazquez’s information in the Warrant Information Network. An assistant U.S. attorney sent a copy of the warrant to Velazquez’s counsel, who stipulated that he received it. Neither that attorney nor Velazquez appeared at the arraignment. From November 2005 until November 2010, authorities checked the National Crime Information Center eight times to see if any agency had encountered Velazquez. A DEA agent checked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office annually to make sure the office was still willing to prosecute, ensured that the warrant was still active in the NCIC, and contacted the Marshals Service to ask if they had new information. He put Velazquez on the “Most Wanted” section of the Philadelphia DEA website, but not on the Los Angeles site, where authorities believed Velazquez was living. No law enforcement agency visited addresses identified in 2005 or returned to the home of Velazquez’s brother; no one contacted his parents, his attorney or the Los Angeles agent; and no one searched commercial or other governmental databases. Velazquez was apprehended in 2011, in California on an unrelated narcotics charge. The district court denied his motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds. The Sixth Circuit reversed, applying the four-factor test from two Supreme Court decisions.
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