United States v. Natividad Ocanas, Santiago Casiano, Jr., Ramiro Gonzalez Alvarado, Rogelio Jose De La Garza and Amadeo Uresti Garza

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

From at least June 1976 through February 1977, about thirty individuals in Donna, Texas, were involved in importing marijuana from Mexico and distributing it in the United States. The conspirators floated bales of marijuana across the Rio Grande at a farm near Donna, transported them to a rented garage where they hid them in produce trucks, and shipped them to Oklahoma for sale to distributors.

The appellants were first indicted in September 1977. The indictment charged conspiracy to import and importing marijuana, and conspiracy to possess and possessing marijuana…