United States First Circuit

In this case arising out of defendant's role in an international drug smuggling conspiracy, defendant pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and to failing to report the importation of more than $10,000 in US currency. The district court imposed a below-guidelines sentence of 120 months in prison. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) defendant claims that certain sentencing factors were given insufficient weight, but the district court did in fact consider each of those sentencing factors and viewed them as cutting against defendant in the context of this drug conspiracy; 2) defendant received a longer sentence than three other members of the conspiracy, but the court noted that defendant had not cooperated like the others, who had testified at trial; and 3) the district court granted a below-guidelines sentence on account of defendant's clean criminal history, but did not go lower due to the fact that defendant's involvement in the conspiracy was "escalating" and not "decreasing."

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/16/2015
• Published 03/16/2015

Judges

• Howard

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel