United States v. Anthony Blair

── United States v. Anthony Blair ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: May 01, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 23-13642 Document: 55-1 Date Filed: 05/01/2026 Page: 1 of 20 FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-13642 ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ANTHONY RONDEL BLAIR, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:18-cr-00260-LMM-CMS-1 ____________________ Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. GRANT, Circuit Judge: Anthony Blair had quite the deal for his friends and associates: all-expenses-paid vacations to Costa Rica. The only catch? They would have to bring back “souvenirs” in their luggage—things like stuffed animals, coffee, and, most USCA11 Case: 23-13642 Document: 55-1 Date Filed: 05/01/2026 Page: 2 of 20 2 Opinion of the Court 23-13642 importantly, canned fruits and vegetables. When the travelers returned, Blair would meet them and collect just the cans (the rest was theirs to keep). The cans, as the reader may have suspected, contained neither fruit nor vegetables, but cocaine. The government eventually caught on, too, and charged Blair with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance. At trial, he argued that the government had not proved that he knew the cans contained cocaine, but the jury did not buy it. Blair now brings six challenges to his trial and sentencing. None are persuasive, and we affirm. I. At least to Blair, it seemed like the perfect drug-smuggling scheme: find everyday people, provide them with all-expenses-paid vacations to Costa Rica, secretly give them drugs, and then send them home, unaware that they were carrying cocaine. The travelers, for their part, were given certain “souvenirs,” including canned goods, and were told they were part of an insurance company’s security audit of baggage handling practices. The travelers sometimes doubted the insurance story, but only a handful refused to play along. Because they looked like tourists returning from vacation, getting through customs was usually no trouble. Then, the cans (but not the other “souvenirs”) were retrieved—along with the cocaine inside them. Blair learned about this scheme while working as a credit repair specialist for Jason Arias and other members of the Arias USCA11 Case: 23-13642 Document: 55-1 Date Filed: 05/01/2026 Page: 3 of 20 23-13642 Opinion of the Court 3 family. And when he discovered how much Arias made bringing the cans back from Central America, he wanted in. Blair soon took a trip, brought back some cans, and made $2,500 after driving them “up north” to Arias’s uncle. His appetite whetted, Blair soon began recruiting other travelers, with a finder’s fee that eventually reached $12,500 per pair. Over the course of nine months, he booked ninety-four travelers. Blair served as the travel agent for his recruits, paying for flights, hotels, and Ubers. But that was not all: if a traveler needed an exped