Jacob Juvera, Benito Juvera and Daniel Juvera v. United States

The appellants are three brothers who at the times here in question resided in or near Los Angeles, California. They were jointly indicted and charged in two counts with knowingly importing and bringing some 426 grams of heroin, a narcotic drug, into the United States from Mexico, and with knowingly and unlawfully concealing and facilitating the concealment and transportation of that quantity of heroin, which, as the defendants then and there knew, previously had been illegally imported into the United States. All three defendants were found guilty by jury verdict and sentenced to terms of imprisonment, from which sentences each of them has appealed to this court.

What transpired in the process of importing this heroin from Tijuana, Mexico, to Los Angeles, is undisputed. The mode adopted by those undertaking the importation was an elaborate one. It was cleverly planned and executed. And another extraordinary feature of the importation process was that the person hired and paid to move the narcotics across the line informed the government agents of every move made by him and by the defendants in receiving the narcotics; and, in consequence, except for a period of but a few…