United States v. Cortés-Cabán
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
691 F.3d 1 (2012)
Victor Cortes-Caban and other officers of a Puerto Rico police drug unit (defendants) took drugs and other contraband from a securely stored evidence box and planted them on the properties of ten individuals to manufacture arrests, rather than to actually traffic the substances. The United States (plaintiff) charged the officers with conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute, and a jury convicted three of them; the officers appealed, arguing they lacked the specific intent to distribute drugs required by the statute since their true goal was fabricating cases, not drug trafficking.
Whether officers who deliberately planted drugs on individuals' property to fabricate criminal cases had the specific intent to distribute controlled substances required for a conspiracy conviction under the Controlled Substances Act.