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Respondent maintains that the cash originated from
petitioner's sale of illegal drugs. Respondent contends that
petitioner's plea of guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine
in the years 1974 to 1985, petitioner's stipulation that he paid
most of his living expenses during 1987 and 1988 using cash,
cashier's checks, and money orders, the amount of cash found in
the boxes, the use of the safe deposit boxes to conceal the
money, and petitioner's use of fictitious identifications
indicate that petitioner was involved in the activity of
distributing illegal drugs.
Laurence M. Gallion (Gallion), a special agent with Customs
testified that during the early part of 1987 Customs instigated
an investigation of major drug smugglers on the West Coast.
Among the suspected major smugglers investigated was petitioner.
Gallion testified that at the time of these investigations,
Customs had a warehouse in San Francisco that was full of
confiscated marijuana which it decided to sell in a reverse sting
operation to suspected drug dealers. In the sting operation,
Customs planned to sell the marijuana to the suspect, and then
arrest the suspect for buying it.
Accordingly, Customs asked Paul Logan (Logan) to work for it
as a confidential informant and to set up a marijuana deal with
petitioner. Petitioner and Logan have known each other since
sometime in the 1970's when Logan was a mid-level marijuana
dealer in Miami, Florida. Furthermore, they have engaged in
business with each other in the past; sometime around 1985,
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