United States v. Melendez-Santiago, No. 08-2394 (1st Cir. 2011)
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Defendant, an addict with no prior criminal history, was one of 12 indicted co-conspirators convicted of conspiracy to import five or more kilograms of cocaine and one or more kilograms of heroin, as well as actual importation of five or more kilograms of cocaine, and was sentenced to 360 months' imprisonment. The First Circuit affirmed. Affidavits supported the decision to authorize wiretaps under 18 U.S.C. 2518(1)(c) and speculation that a confidential source must already have known and shared with the investigators the details of the conspiracy's inner workings before the wiretap application was illogical and unsupported. The district court decision that defendant knowingly and voluntarily decided to cooperate, without counsel, waiving his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, was not an error.
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