U.S. v. Salinas

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on drug conspiracy charge, where defendant was arrested after police found $311,000 in hidden compartment of defendant’s truck. While defendant argued that govt. failed to establish that he knew $311,000 was connected to drug sales or was willfully blind to such fact, record contained sufficient evidence to support guilty verdict where defendant: (1) admitted he transported said money in hidden compartment of his truck; (2) arranged with known drug dealer to pick up said money; (3) built lead-lined compartment in truck that expert explained was typically used to transport drug money; and (4) lied to police about ownership of money. Also, record contained sufficient evidence to support issuance of ostrich instruction, where record contained evidence that defendant had reason to question origin of money he was transporting. Fact that instruction did not include express statement that deliberate avoidance needs to be more than mere negligence did not require different result.