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US govt tenders 24K documents in ‘ice’ shipment case
Jury trial of 2 of 3 defendants reset to allow lawyers more time to prepare
The U.S. government only recently provided 24,000 documents to the counsels for two of three men charged over the shipment of 4.9 lbs of methamphetamine or “ice” worth $850,000.
Following this reason plus other factors, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona reset the scheduled April 26, 2016, jury trial of defendants Shiheng Cai and Zhaopeng Chen to July 19, 2016.
Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI during a pretrial conference on Wednesday that such voluminous documents were tendered over to defendants Cai and Chen, through their court-appointed counsels Mark Hanson and David Banes respectively.
Backe also disclosed to the court that the U.S. government was also waiting for laboratory results.
Banes told the court about the need for additional time to work with these voluminous documents, as well as the need to get these papers translated.
According to the minutes of the hearing, Hanson spoke about the challenges regarding these voluminous documents and the substantial amount of foreign language documents.
Hanson moved to continue the trial set for April 26 based on discovery issues and the need to review pending laboratory reports.
Manglona granted the motion.
After the hearing, Cai and Chen were remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.
Cai’s and Chen’s co-defendant, Xi Huang, who was tagged as the alleged leader of the group, pleaded guilty last week to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Huang’s sentencing will be on July 8, 2016 at 9am.
According to the indictment, Huang, Cai, and Chen, conspired between Nov. 30 and Dec. 4, 2015, to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
A routine Customs inspection at the Port of Saipan of a 40-foot container from Guangzhou, China, resulted in the discovery of the 4.9 lbs of “ice” hidden in three plastic bags in one of the nine 5-gallon paint containers last Dec. 2.
Joint federal and local enforcers investigated the shipment, resulting in the defendants’ arrest.
