United States v. Adan Moran-Elias

MEMORANDUM

Adan Moran-Elias appeals his jury conviction for several offenses related to smuggling an undocumented alien, Martin Duarte-Saucedo, into the United States. We affirm.

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents had probable cause to arrest Moran-Elias under the “totality of the circumstances,” United States v. Lopez, 482 F.3d 1067, 1077-78 (9th Cir.2007). The CBP’s observations that Duarte-Saucedo crossed the border using false documentation, proceeded to an apparently pre-planned meeting with Jamah Briggs, accompanied Briggs to another apparently pre-planned meeting with Moran-Elias, and then accompanied Moran-Elias to Nelida Dimas’s waiting car, created a “fair probability” that Moran-Elias was part of an “ongoing criminal operation” to smuggle Duarte-Saucedo into the United States. See United States v. Rodriguez, 869 F.2d 479, 483 (9th Cir.1989).

As the government concedes, Duarte-Saucedo’s videotaped deposition was admitted in error. In light of the record as a whole, including Moran-Elias’s confession, Dimas’s testimony regarding her instructions to pick up and transport an undocumented alien, and the CBP’s observation that Duarte-Saucedo presented false…