Espinoza-Lopez

MEMORANDUM ***

Defendant Trinidad Espinoza Lopez appeals his conviction and sentence following a bench trial. The district court found Espinoza Lopez guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a), (b) & 846 and two counts of distributing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a), (b). The district court sentenced Espinoza Lopez to a mandatory minimum of two hundred forty months’ imprisonment under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 , 851. We affirm.

Espinoza Lopez first challenges the district court’s denial of his Motion to Dismiss the Indictment, which was premised on an alleged violation of due process resulting from the Government’s pre-indictment destruction of the drug evidence upon which his prosecution was based. Espinoza Lopez concedes that the evidence was, at best, only “potentially useful.” Thus, its destruction violates due process only if done in bad faith. See Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 57, 58 , 109 S.Ct. 333 , 102 L.Ed.2d 281 (198); Illinois v. Fisher, 540 U.S. 544, 549 , 124 S.Ct. 1200 , *490 157 L.Ed.2d 1060 (2004). At most, Espinoza Lopez produced evidence showing that the Government intentionally…