Post by scumbuster on Aug 28, 2020 18:32:27 GMT -5
Venezuela Presidential Nephew Appeals 18 Year Narcotraffic Conviction to U.S. Supreme Court (DOCUMENT)
Cousins Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, nephews of Venezuela first lady Cilia Flores, were convicted by a jury and sentenced to 18 years each for conspiring to import over 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States
MIAMI -- Venezuela Presidential nephew Franqui Francisco Flores De Freitas has appealed his narcotrafficking conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and his cousin Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, who is Venezuela de facto President Nicolas Maduro's godson, were each sentenced to 216 months in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States after a jury convicted them in 2016, following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty, who imposed today’s sentences.
Represented by white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin, Franqui Flores' Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court poses two issues.
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
Can a jury be instructed that it may convict based on a criminal defendant’s conscious avoidance of knowledge of a necessary fact, without needing to find the defendant’s actual knowledge of that fact, where the evidence shows that the defendant was aware of a high probability that the fact existed, but does not show that the defendant took deliberate steps to avoid confirming the existence of that fact?
Does the Sentencing Guidelines’ enhancement for using a private aircraft “to import” a controlled substance, U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(3)(A), apply when a private aircraft is merely used (or planned to be used) to bring the controlled substance from one place outside of the United States to another place outside of the United States, but not used (or planned to be used) to bring the controlled substance across the border into the United States?
The Conviction
“In part to fund an election campaign for the first lady of Venezuela, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas devised a plan to work with the FARC terrorist organization to send literally tons of cocaine to the United States" said Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim. "At their trial, a unanimous jury saw their plot for what it was – a massive drug distribution conspiracy. With today’s sentencing, for participating in this brazen cocaine trafficking scheme, they will spend many years in an American prison.”
“The sentencing of Campo-Flores and Flores-de Freitas serves as a strong reminder that anyone choosing to traffic drugs will be relentlessly pursued by the DEA and prosecuted for their involvement in such activities,” said DEA Special Operations Division Special Agent-in-Charge Raymond Donovan. “Campo-Flores and Flores-de Freitas were involved in illegal drug trafficking practices that assisted in transporting drugs to the doorstep of thousands of people in the United States, contributing to their addictions and overdoses on illegal substances.”
According to the evidence presented at trial and in connection with sentencing proceedings:
Beginning in August 2015, Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas worked with others in Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, and elsewhere – including at least one member of Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (“FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization – in an effort to dispatch large loads of cocaine via private aircraft from premises controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela.
The defendants’ aunt, Cilia Flores, is the first lady of Venezuela, and during the investigation, Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas told individuals acting at the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) that they intended to use part of the proceeds of their drug trafficking to fund her December 2015 campaign for a position in the Venezuelan National Assembly. Electronic communications seized from the defendants’ phones also demonstrated, among other things, that Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas had engaged in a scheme to solicit bribes from debtors of Venezuela’s state-run oil and natural gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (“PDVSA”), in exchange for promises that a cousin, Carlos Erik Malpica-Flores, would cause PDVSA to approve and make payments on certain debts. Maduro, Malpica-Flores, and other current and former senior Venezuelan officials have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury pursuant to Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13692, which authorizes sanctions against officials of the Government of Venezuela and others undermining democracy there.
In addition to the prison terms, Campo Flores, 31, and Flores De Freitas, 33, were each ordered to pay a fine of $50,000.
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2494766&CategoryId=10717
Cousins Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, nephews of Venezuela first lady Cilia Flores, were convicted by a jury and sentenced to 18 years each for conspiring to import over 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States
MIAMI -- Venezuela Presidential nephew Franqui Francisco Flores De Freitas has appealed his narcotrafficking conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and his cousin Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, who is Venezuela de facto President Nicolas Maduro's godson, were each sentenced to 216 months in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States after a jury convicted them in 2016, following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty, who imposed today’s sentences.
Represented by white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin, Franqui Flores' Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court poses two issues.
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
Can a jury be instructed that it may convict based on a criminal defendant’s conscious avoidance of knowledge of a necessary fact, without needing to find the defendant’s actual knowledge of that fact, where the evidence shows that the defendant was aware of a high probability that the fact existed, but does not show that the defendant took deliberate steps to avoid confirming the existence of that fact?
Does the Sentencing Guidelines’ enhancement for using a private aircraft “to import” a controlled substance, U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(3)(A), apply when a private aircraft is merely used (or planned to be used) to bring the controlled substance from one place outside of the United States to another place outside of the United States, but not used (or planned to be used) to bring the controlled substance across the border into the United States?
The Conviction
“In part to fund an election campaign for the first lady of Venezuela, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas devised a plan to work with the FARC terrorist organization to send literally tons of cocaine to the United States" said Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim. "At their trial, a unanimous jury saw their plot for what it was – a massive drug distribution conspiracy. With today’s sentencing, for participating in this brazen cocaine trafficking scheme, they will spend many years in an American prison.”
“The sentencing of Campo-Flores and Flores-de Freitas serves as a strong reminder that anyone choosing to traffic drugs will be relentlessly pursued by the DEA and prosecuted for their involvement in such activities,” said DEA Special Operations Division Special Agent-in-Charge Raymond Donovan. “Campo-Flores and Flores-de Freitas were involved in illegal drug trafficking practices that assisted in transporting drugs to the doorstep of thousands of people in the United States, contributing to their addictions and overdoses on illegal substances.”
According to the evidence presented at trial and in connection with sentencing proceedings:
Beginning in August 2015, Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas worked with others in Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, and elsewhere – including at least one member of Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (“FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization – in an effort to dispatch large loads of cocaine via private aircraft from premises controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela.
The defendants’ aunt, Cilia Flores, is the first lady of Venezuela, and during the investigation, Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas told individuals acting at the direction of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) that they intended to use part of the proceeds of their drug trafficking to fund her December 2015 campaign for a position in the Venezuelan National Assembly. Electronic communications seized from the defendants’ phones also demonstrated, among other things, that Campo Flores and Flores De Freitas had engaged in a scheme to solicit bribes from debtors of Venezuela’s state-run oil and natural gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (“PDVSA”), in exchange for promises that a cousin, Carlos Erik Malpica-Flores, would cause PDVSA to approve and make payments on certain debts. Maduro, Malpica-Flores, and other current and former senior Venezuelan officials have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury pursuant to Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13692, which authorizes sanctions against officials of the Government of Venezuela and others undermining democracy there.
In addition to the prison terms, Campo Flores, 31, and Flores De Freitas, 33, were each ordered to pay a fine of $50,000.
www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2494766&CategoryId=10717