A Gwinnett County jury convicted co-defendants Indorfo Espinoza and Polinar Vasquez of a single count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.1 They were sentenced to ten years confinement to serve eight and six years, respectively. Separately, they appeal upon entry of the judgment of conviction and the sentence imposed by the superior court. Inasmuch as their claims are identical in part and arise upon the same set of facts, we have consolidated their cases for disposition on appeal. Held:
Viewed in a light most favorable to the jury’s verdicts, the evidence shows that on August 5, 1998, a suspected drug trafficker, a man named Arzate, was placed under surveillance at a Smyrna apartment by Special Agent Jeffery Dalman, United States Drug Enforcement Agency “DEA”, acting on a lead provided by another DEA office. When Arzate left the Smyrna residence in a pickup truck registered to a California man from whom 100 pounds of marijuana had been seized, Special Agent Dalman followed, eventually losing him in the vicinity of Lilburn. Thinking that Arzate might reappear at the Lilburn residence where two years earlier he had seized 1,500 pounds of marijuana in conjunction with a drug trafficking arrest, Special Agent Dalman went to that location, found Arzate’s truck, and initiated a second surveillance. Among other things, Special Agent Dalman noted the presence of a Ford van which was backed into the carport of the residence. After about an hour, three vehicles departed the residence in what appeared to be a convoy. Arzate, driving his pickup led. In the second vehicle, the Ford van, driven by Cesar Hernandez, Polinar Vasquez rode as a passenger. Indorfo Espinoza rode as a passenger in the third vehicle, a Ford Taurus, driven by Juan Albarran. As the three vehicles approached Interstate 85, contact was again lost with Arzate as he pulled away from the group in the pickup onto Interstate 85 south while the remaining vehicles stopped at a gas station where the van took on fuel. The vehicles then entered Interstate 85 northbound where, based on the totality of the circumstances, Special Agent Dalman ordered them stopped. Gwinnett County Police Officer Dan Llorens, who assisted in the traffic stop, testified that Cesar Hernandez consented to a search of the van. In the search which followed, a second Gwinnett County police officer assisting on the scene, Officer Gary Linder, found a black duffel bag containing 25 pounds of marijuana under the van’s back bench seat.
