THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
FROLIAN ALONSO GARCIA, ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1992-04-14
No. 91-226
Before LEVY, GERSTEN and GODERICH, JJ.
596 So. 2d 1237 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1992) Caution
Cited by 5 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The State of Florida appealed the trial court's reduction of trafficking charges to simple possession charges for defendants Garcia and Castillo. The appellate court reversed, holding that the total weight of packages containing cocaine, regardless of whether all portions tested positive, constitutes a 'mixture containing cocaine' under Florida's trafficking statute.


Holding

The trial court erred in reducing the charges. The statute prohibits possession of 'any mixture containing cocaine,' and the relevant measure is the total weight of material knowingly placed in the packages by the defendants, not the amount of pure cocaine or the degree of mixing. Both packages tested positive for cocaine and exceeded 400 grams, satisfying the trafficking statute requirements.


Headnotes

[1] A statute prohibiting trafficking in cocaine based on the weight of a mixture containing cocaine is constitutional.

[2] For purposes of cocaine trafficking statutes, the weight of a mixture containing cocaine is determined by the total weight of the substance, not solely the weight of the…

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Key Quotes

“cocaine is generally marketed in a diluted or impure state, and concluded that the intent of the statute was to classify offenders based upon the total amount of the substance containing the cocaine — not by the amount of the pure cocaine itself”

Establishes the statutory interpretation that total weight of mixture, not pure cocaine content, determines trafficking liability

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Facts & Procedural History

Defendants Garcia and Castillo were found in possession of two kilo-sized packages. The State's chemist tested samples from each package: samples from…

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Opinion of the Court
LEVY, Judge.

LEVY, Judge.

The State correctly argues that the trial court erred in reducing the defendants’ charges from trafficking to simple possession of cocaine pursuant to defendants’ motions to dismiss. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the trial court reducing the charges brought against the defendants. The facts of the case are as follows.

Froilan Alonso Garcia and Braulio Castillo, the defendants, were charged with two counts of trafficking in cocaine. The information alleged that the defendants violated Section 893.135(l)(b), Florida Statutes (1989), in that they were knowingly in actual or constructive possession of 400 grams or more of cocaine, or a mixture containing cocaine.1 Both defendants filed a sworn Motion to Dismiss. At the motion hearing, the State’s chemist who had examined the two kilo-sized packages in the defendants’ possession, stated that he had taken two samples from each package. The sample taken from the window, or opening, of each package tested positive for cocaine. The sample taken from the interior portion of the packages tested negative for cocaine. The chemist stated that the two substances were not separated by any physical barrier within the packages. The State argued that these packages were “mixtures containing cocaine” as proscribed by Section 893.135(l)(b). The defendants argued that the State could not rely on the total weight to prove a trafficking amount because only a portion of the material tested positive for cocaine. The trial court then granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss and reduced the charges to simple possession of cocaine.

We note that the Florida Supreme Court, in upholding the constitutionality of Section 893.135(1)(b), recognized that cocaine is generally marketed in a diluted or impure state, and concluded that the intent of the statute was to classify offenders based upon the total amount of the substance containing the cocaine — not by the amount of the pure cocaine itself. State v. Yu, 400 So. 2d 762 (Fla.1981).2 Similarly, this Court in the case of Velunza v. State, 504 So. 2d 780 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987), focused upon the weight of the mixed substance of cocaine, and affirmed the defendant’s conviction under Section 893.135(l)(b), for possession of 400 grams or more of a mixture containing cocaine.

We have also focused our analysis upon the total weight of the material that the defendants placed in the packages, and have concluded that the trial court erred in reducing the charges against the defendants based upon their sworn motions to dismiss. Both packages tested positive for cocaine and both packages exceeded the 400 gram weight. The materials that the defendants chose to combine together in the same package were both encapsulated together within the same physical container, without any separating barrier. The critical factor in determining the defendants’ guilt is that they knowingly placed the illegal substance in the packages. The degree of mixing or blending which took place thereafter is irrelevant. Certainly, the guilt of the defendants is not to be determined by whether or not they shook up the packages (thereby completing the blending process) before they were arrested.

Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s reduction of the charges, as well as the proceedings that followed thereafter, and remand for further proceedings consistent herewith.

Reversed.

. Section 893.135(l)(b), Florida Statutes (1989) (emphasis added), states that:

Any person who knowingly sells, manufactures, delivers, or brings into this state, or who is knowingly in actual or constructive possession of, 28 grams or more of cocaine as described in s. 893.03(2)(a)4, or any mixture containing cocaine is guilty of a felony of the first degree, which felony shall be known as "trafficking in cocaine.”

. The Court noted:

The legislature reasonably could have concluded that a mixture containing cocaine could be distributed to a greater number of people than the same amount of undiluted cocaine and thus could pose a greater potential for harm to the public. This was within its prerogative to decide, and it has not been shown that such decision was irrational or unreasonable. State v. Yu, 400 So. 2d at 765.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Calvo v. State, 800 So. 2d 315 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …the State must prove that each package contained cocaine before the contents of that package may be considered in establishing the requisite weight for trafficking); Ross v. State, 528 So. 2d 1237 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988) (the same). Cf. State v. Garcia, 596 So. 2d 1237 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (holding that the State could rely on the total weight of a package to establish a trafficking quantity where a sample from one area of the bag tested positive and a sample from another area tested negative but where the two subst…
  • Braulio Castillo v. United States, 200 F.3d 735 (11th Cir. 2000)
    …t of Appeal found the trial court's ruling on the motion to dismiss to be in error and reversed "the trial court's reduction of the charges, as well as the proceedings that followed thereafter, and remanded for further proceedings.” State v. Garcia, 596 So. 2d 1237, 1239 (Fla.Dist.Ct. App.1992). The trafficking charges against Castillo were reinstated, but subsequently nolle prossed. . The fact that the Florida state court vacated Castillo's conviction in a ruling adverse to Castillo distinguishes this case fr…
  • United States v. Himick, 338 F. Supp. 2d 1316 (S.D. Fla. 2004)
    …ial court’s ruling on the motion to dismiss was in error, and reversed “the trial court’s reduction of the charges, as well as the proceedings that followed thereafter, and remanded for further proceedings.” Id. (quoting State v. Garcia, 596 So.2d 1237, 1239 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992)). The trafficking charges against Castillo were then reinstated, but subsequently nolle prossed. *1322 The Eleventh Circuit concluded that Castillo’s state court convictions were not set aside for innocence, and…

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