Saturday, July 30, 2022

Courtroom Closed Amid Trial of Man Charged With 5 Kilos of Cocaine From Colombia

 

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN

SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 27 –   Three men were charged with a conspiracy to distribute five kilos of cocaine, and import the drugs from Colombia to Puerto Rico. One was Vincente Estevez.

   On January 20, 2022 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge John G. Koeltl held a status conference. Inner City Press covered it.

  Judge Koeltl set a hearing on motions for May 20, and the trial for July 25, to avoid a time in August he will be out.

On July 27, Inner City Press went to cover the trial. At defense table was Estevez and two defense counsel.

Quickly there were a sidebar, then it was announced that the courtroom would be closed, but audio made available - ironically in the same courtroom where the partially sealed trial of Josh Schulte was recently held. It went like this:

Witness works for DEA Caribbean. He's from Colombia. He is undercover in drug trafficking and money laundering cases.

AUSA: Do you surreptitiously record conversations?

Agent Pedro Gonzalez: Yes. I infiltrate. In this case we 1st heard from Cartagena, Colombia. We had 3 undercovers on the team.

 AUSA: Gov Exhibit 103. (Neither Inner City Press nor any other member of the media or public can see)

Now with witness off the stand, and jury gone, still the lawyers' argument is shifted to the "robing room" and the courtroom locked


The case is US v. Camejo et al., 20-cr-686 (Koeltl)  

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