Robert Norman Pederson v. United States

This is an appeal from a conviction on a four-count indictment charging conspiracy to smuggle goods into the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371 ; concealment and transportation of amphetamine sulfate tablets and barbiturate capsules, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 545 ; and possession of stimulant or depressant drugs, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 331 (q) (3) and 360a(c).

Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient and, in particular, it failed to establish a corpus delicti.

In the latter part of May 1966, Customs Agent David F. Burnett learned from an informant that he had been hired by an unidentified male Mexican to drive a 1955 Mercury automobile, California License No. GIX 090, equipped with a gasoline tank with a false compartment containing pills, from Tijuana, Mexico to a Sam’s Restaurant in Huntington Beach, California. The informant had been instructed to park the automobile in the parking lot of the restaurant. There, supposedly, he was to wait one hour and then he would find $100.00 in the car.

On May 31, 1966, Agent Burnett observed the Mercury driven by informant enter…