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United States v. de Velasquez

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

28 F.3d 2 (1994)

Facts

Customs agents found heroin in the soles of the shoes that Ana Marin de Velasquez (defendant) was wearing after her flight from Colombia landed in New York. Velasquez admitted she was transporting heroin internally but denied knowing about the drugs in her shoes. Instead she claimed that Colombian drug traffickers gave her the shoes to identify her to her contact in New York. After Velasquez pled guilty, the court included the heroin in her shoes in calculating the total amount imported for sentencing purposes. Velasquez appealed, arguing that the mens rea doctrine and due process required the trial court to exclude the heroin in her shoes. In the alternative, Velasquez argued that the court should have included the heroin in her shoes only if it was reasonably foreseeable that the shoes contained heroin.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning (McLaughlin, J.)

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A "yes" or "no" answer to the question framed in the issue section;
A summary of the majority or plurality opinion, using the CREAC method; and
The procedural disposition (e.g., reversed and remanded, affirmed, etc.).

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