Hartog

I. BACKGROUND

Hartog’s entanglement in the drug trade stretches back nearly thirty years. In 1979, Hartog had been convicted of conspiracy to transport 1,066 kilograms of marijuana in the State of Arizona. That conviction, however, did not dissuade Hartog from continuing his involvement in drug trafficking. Numerous reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation detail statements from Hartog’s former associates implicating him in continued drug-smuggling efforts throughout the 1980s. Marijuana smuggled into the United States in 1987 eventually led to Hartog’s 1992 arrest and sentence to fifteen years imprisonment.

The planning for the 1987 scheme, which involved two separate shipments, began as early as 1986. In December 1986, Hartog told Seth Booky, a business associate, that the two shipments consisted of a smaller load of approximately ten tons and a second “big” load.1 A month later, Hartog, 1 Seth Booky was arrested in June 1987 due to a separate marijuana sale and then agreed to cooperate with the government, including by taping conversations with Hartog. UNITED STATES v. HARTOG 825 Booky and three other co-conspirators met in Carmel, Califor- nia,…