Hermanek

I. Overview

Appellants Robert Hermanek, Robert Rutherford, Anthony Flowers, Sheldon Johnson and Jerry Fiorillo were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine, possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and related offenses. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 , 841(a)(1). The government alleged that Flowers was at the center of a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization, that Fiorillo and Hermanek were Flowers’ suppliers and that Johnson and Rutherford were among Flowers’ larger customers. In 1994, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) conducted extensive electronic surveillance of the cocaine trafficking organizations headed re *1083 spectively by Flowers and another man, Emanuel Lacy, leading to the indictment of appellants and others. Six of those charged, including all five appellants, were joined in one trial. Before trial, appellants unsuccessfully moved to suppress wiretap evidence, charging that the government failed to comply with the recording and sealing requirements codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2518 (8)(a).

A four-month jury trial ensued. The government introduced six kilograms of cocaine seized from residences associated with…