United States v. Harold David Gibbs, Jr., United States of America v. Jose Felipe Fernandez-Ortiz

Appellants were jointly tried before a jury and convicted on two counts of knowingly receiving, concealing and facilitating the transportation and concealment of marihuana in violation of 21 U. S.C. § 176a and of conspiracy to violate 21 U.S.C. § 176a. Both appellants were sentenced to five years imprisonment on each count, to be served concurrently. They have prosecutéd separate appeals which we have consolidated for argument and disposition.

The pertinent facts are as follows: At approximately 8:00 P.M. on April 29, 1969, Special Agent Rex Holgerson of the United States Customs Service in Nogales, Arizona, received a telephone call from a known informer whom he believed to be in Mexico. The caller, speaking Spanish, informed him that a green 1955 Buick sedan and a white Ford pickup truck, both with Mexican license plates, were then parked in a supermarket parking lot in Nogales, one-third block from the Mexican border. The Buick contained a load of marihuana and, later that evening, persons unknown to the informer would pick up the Buick and drive it north from Nogales. The informer added that the pickup was also involved in the operation.

Agent Holgerson proceeded immediately…