United States v. Timothy Nicholas Peterson, Darryl Ray Hood, Stephen Allen Falk, and Paul Jules Goudeau

Appellants appeal their convictions for possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) in United States customs waters with the intent to distribute and for conspiracy to destroy goods to prevent seizure, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and 21 U.S.C. § 955a(c), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 , 2232. Following denial of their motions to suppress evidence, appellants entered conditional guilty pleas on the possession charge. The parties submitted the conspiracy charge to the district court on a- set of stipulated facts, and the trial court convicted.

In early 1984, the Bangkok office of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) learned from a confidential informant of a plan to smuggle thirty-two tons of marijuana from Thailand. The DEA identified appellant Falk as a participant and notified Thai authorities of his presence in that country. In Bangkok, Thai narcotics authorities wiretapped telephones in Falk’s rented apartment, and at a government post office where appellant Peterson made calls. The Thai officials provided information from the wiretaps to the DEA, and, since the tapes were in English, the DEA translated some of them.

The DEA and Thai authorities learned that a ship, the Allyson,…