U.S. v. Wiley

A warden at a federal prison asked an inmate-informant to investigate drug use and smuggling within the prison. Through discussions with other inmates, the informant learned that an inmate named Wiley (defendant) could facilitate having marijuana smuggled into the prison. The informant met with Wiley a number of times and eventually convinced Wiley to assist in smuggling one pound of marijuana into the prison in exchange for an ounce of the drug Wiley would keep himself. Wiley said that the drugs could be smuggled into the prison via a prison cook, Garbiso, who had acted as a courier for Wiley before. Wiley told the informant that Garbiso would be more likely to participate if the drugs were delivered to Garbiso by someone he could trust on the outside. Wiley suggested that they could have asked Wiley’s sometime girlfriend Lee, whom Garbiso was aware of but had never met, but that this was not possible because Wiley and Lee were not currently on good terms. The informant suggested that he could find someone to pose as Lee. After negotiations between the informant, Wiley, and Garbiso, the smuggling plan went ahead. The marijuana was provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and delivered to Garbiso by an FBI agent pretending to be Lee. Garbiso smuggled the drugs into the prison, but the drugs were never found by the authorities after that, thwarting the undercover mission. Wiley was convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute marijuana. Wiley appealed, alleging that the government’s conduct in the undercover operation was so outrageous that it violated due process.