...you'll see that not only did he have suspicions, but that those suspicions were validated when he had to repair the mechanism to open the secret compartment, only to find it loaded with cash. And not a little bit of cash; according to the article, the reason the compartment jammed was that it was over-filled with $800,000 in cash. Anaya's reaction, from the article:
If you were handling $800,000 in cash, then even if I knew with absolute certainty that it were 100% from legal activities, I would want you to get it out of my reach and out of my sight as soon as possible, because I don't want to be suspected if some turns up missing.
If you participate in something you know to be illegal, that's conspiracy. He's not charged because he built a compartment; any activity that he would have participated in which would contribute...knowingly...to an illegal enterprise would fit the bill here. He's charged because he knew something wrong was going on, it involved him, and he said nothing to the police.
At most, he knew someone was carrying a large amount of money. That is not, in itself, an illegal act, so he had no crime to report to the police. If he had found actual drugs in the hidden stash, I'd be more inclined to agree with you.
If the criminals had somehow needed a hot fudge sundae to commit a criminal act, and he'd provided the ice cream knowing what would happen, the name of this article would be "Make a sundae, go to jail."
Sure. On the other hand, if a cashier at a Dairy Queen happened to notice a customer had a lot of cash in their wallet when they opened it up to pay for your hypothetical sundae, the cashier wouldn't have committed any crime, even if they didn't immediately run to call the police to report the non-crime of carrying a lot of cash. See the difference?
I don't see the problem here. Furthermore, Anaya had serious concerns about his customer before he even did the work in the first place..."Anaya was unsettled by this request, for he had suspicions about the nature of Esteban’s work."
Suspicions != knowledge. I'm sure he knew some of his customers purchased these compartments for drug smuggling, just as a gun manufacturer knows that a certain percentage of what they make will be used in illegal activity. However, unless the seller has particular knowledge (not suspicion!) that a particular customer explicitly intends illegal use, and goes forward with the sale anyway, they should not be on the hook for the customer's later illegal activity.
But guess what? None of that is the REAL thing he's caught for. After all of that...what happens? Esteban...the guy with almost a million dollars in cash hidden in his truck...is asked by Esteban to install a similar compartment in ANOTHER truck. I mean, come on...
Satisfied customers making more purchases and providing referrals? No one who runs a business wants that!
Yeah, maybe Esteban just had a really lucrative paper route...
Or is an antiques dealer, and wants to carry large amounts of cash so as to be able to purchase on the spot if he makes a good find, but also knows people will know his job and suspect he carries the cash. So he keeps a few thousand in marked bills in the glovebox in case of robbery to satisfy the robber, and the significant amount in the secret compartment.
Or he's a guy who inherited a ton of money, and is paranoid about the gubmint, so wants a better place to hide a good chunk of it than under the mattress.
Or he just has the money to do it and thinks having a secret compartment stuffed full of cash makes him uber-cool. From TFA, it sounds like there are a lot of celebrities that purchased these compartments from this guy for exactly that reason--because it's a cool toy, and well, because they can.
Or he's just rich and keeps cash around to use in case he runs out of toilet paper. There are any number of alternate scenarios. Point is, it's not my job to investigate my customers to ensure they're not criminals. If I know they are, and knowingly participate in their criminal acts, that's one thing. If they seem a little shady, but I have no actual knowledge of criminal activity, that's quite different, and puts me at significant risk if I falsely report them as criminals. (At the very least, I'd almost certainly lose their business!). But I'm not a law enforcement officer. It's not my job to be policing my customers.
Right. They want your services so bad because it's not all that important to them. You're not helping with the narcotics trade...nooooo...
The manufacturers of the vehicles, the manufacturers of the plastic the drugs were wrapped in, the owners of the motels the dealers stayed in and the staff at the restaurant the dealers ate at while on the road, also helped with the narcotics trade. But that's not the question we ask to determine whether one is guilty of conspiracy. They didn't have actual knowledge that they were helping such trade in a particular case, so they're not complicit in the crime. Actual knowledge, not general suspicion, is what's required for that.
In the end, it's an awfully frightening thought that if I become so much as suspicious of someone, even if I've observed no illegal conduct, I must immediately notify the police of my suspicions or I am complicit in any crimes they may commit. There is such a thing as participating in a conspiracy to commit a crime, and being complicit in the crime for that reason, but being implicated in the crime just because you became suspicious? That's taking it too far.