United States v. Anthony Nicholas Carrion, United States of America v. Michael Anthony Carrion

Michael and Anthony Carrion were convicted in a jury trial of conspiring to smuggle marijuana into the United States from Mexico and to receive and conceal illegally imported marijuana, violations of 21 U.S.C. § 176a, and they appeal. We affirm.

FACTS

The jury found that appellants conspired illegally to import large quantities of marijuana from Mexico into the United States by aitrplane. To aid them, appellants enlisted two comrades, Ponting and Cassidy, who testified for the prosecution. Ponting testified that Anthony telephoned him twice during the summer of 1970 and offered him a job driving a truck. In late August 1970, Ponting and Michael drove a rented truck to the Agua Dulce Air Park near Los Angeles, where they met Anthony and Cassidy and unloaded a large quantity of marijuana which the latter two had just flown in from Mexico. Several days later Michael asked Ponting to meet another shipment. Ponting drove to the same airport, met Anthony and Cassidy, and transferred the shipment from the plane to the truck. Ponting received another call from Michael several days later and again drove to the airport to meet another load, but the plane never arrived. Ponting made…