United States v. Antonio Farias

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Over the course of about 10 months, Antonio Farias purchased more than 18 million unstamped Marlboro cigarettes from undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”), at a significantly below-market price, and he arranged to have the cigarettes transported for sale on an Indian reservation in upstate New York. The agents told Farias they had stolen the cigarettes from cargo trucks. Farias was charged and convicted at trial of one count of conspiring, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, to traffic in stolen goods, 18 U.S.C. § 2314, and to…