United States v. Ivan Garcia-Paz

Garcia-Paz appeals from his conviction, following a jury trial, of importation of merchandise in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 545 (2001). He argues that (1) for the purposes of section 545, marijuana does not constitute “merchandise”; (2) the district court improperly refused to instruct the jury that it must find that Garcia-Paz knowingly imported marijuana in order to sustain a conviction under section 545; and (3) there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction of importation of merchandise in violation of section 545 because he believed he was smuggling medicine, not marijuana. The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231 , and we have jurisdiction over this timely filed appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

I.

On July 21, 2000, approximately 1:20 p.m., Garcia-Paz entered the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro port of entry in an ambulance driven by Reyno-so-Cordero, while Garcia-Paz, working as an emergency medical technician and translator, was in the back of the ambulance with a patient in critical condition. The patient was to be delivered to an air ambulance at nearby Brown Field in the United States. As the ambulance went…