United States v. Gomez, No. 21-1158 (7th Cir. 2022)
Annotate this Case
In 2017, 21 people, including Gomez and Hidalgo-Sanchez. were indicted (21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), 846; 18 U.S.C. 2) for their roles in a drug-trafficking conspiracy. DEA agents had monitored phones used by members of the organization and used information obtained from calls to surveil the organization using pole cameras and in-person observation. Gomez, the purported leader of the organization, was in communication with suppliers in Mexico and he oversaw the importation of controlled substances to the Milwaukee area. DEA agents seized four vehicles used to transport the drugs and collected GPS location information for all of the phones used in intercepted calls.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the convictions of Hidalgo-Sanchez and Gomez, rejecting challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence, the propriety of venue in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and the failure of the trial judge to give a limiting instruction to the jury concerning a bill of lading that was admitted into evidence. The government’s use of bolstering testimony about the process of obtaining approval for wiretaps constituted an error, but the error does not warrant reversal. The court concluded there “is more than enough evidence to support the jury’s verdict.”
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.