Blend

Appellant was convicted of two counts of selling cocaine (Health & Saf. Code, § 11352) and was placed on felony probation for five years with service of nine months in the county jail and payment of a $500 fine imposed as conditions of probation. The main argument presented by appellant is that evidence of the sales of cocaine should be suppressed because information leading to the circumstances of the sales was obtained in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act ( 18 U.S.C. § 1385 ) which makes the willful use of the military in executing civil laws a criminal offense.

At the preliminary hearing, Investigator Walter J. Osborne of the Kings County Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Task Force testified that he purchased a vial of white powder, later found to be cocaine, from appellant in the bowling alley parking lot at Lemoore Naval Air Station on December 12, 1978, paying appellant five $20 bills. The transaction was tape recorded. Appellant was in the service and Osborne was aware of it. The following day, December 13, Osborne made a second purchase of cocaine from appellant at the same location; this transaction was also tape recorded. At the December 12 buy, Osborne was…