Nobari

I. Background

Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Fresno Methamphetamine Task Force arrested Nobari, George, Shino, and Zazueta after they attempted to purchase 22 buckets of pseudoephedrine pills from an under- cover agent on November 20, 2003, in Turlock, California. 9656 UNITED STATES v. NOBARI George arranged the drug transaction. To do so, he communi- cated first with a confidential informant for the government (“Informant”), and subsequently with an undercover DEA agent (“Agent”). On the day before the attempted purchase, George agreed to buy 200 cases of pseudoephedrine pills from the Agent for a price of $400,000.

The next day, George and Nobari arrived together in George’s vehicle at a McDonald’s parking lot in Turlock, met the Agent there, and arranged the pseudoephedrine pill trans- action. The Agent later showed George and Nobari the con- tents of an Enterprise rental truck, which held approximately 22 seven-gallon buckets filled with pseudoephedrine pills (each bucket the equivalent of five cases of pills). The Agent indicated that the price per bucket was $10,000. George and Nobari then left the parking lot to “talk to…