DRUG CONSPIRACY – Sufficiency of Evidence; Entrapment 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, March 22, 2010
By admin

1)Where a defendant convicted in a drug conspiracy sought to admit a recording of a post-arrest statement of a co-defendant and a conversation recorded between two other defendants, the District Court properly excluded the evidence because the co-defendant was not a hearsay declarant but a witness at trial, and the conversation was properly excluded as hearsay.

(2)Where witnesses identified a defendant as a member and leader of a drug trafficking operation and the defendant was arrested carrying more than $5,000 and keys to an apartment where drug packaging material was found, the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions.

(3)Where a defendant sought a jury instruction on entrapment, the defendant did not show that he was an unwilling participant who had refused opportunities to enter the drug trade before succumbing to pressure from a government agent, so the court did not err in failing to propose an entrapment instruction. Judgment is affirmed.