Opinion ID: 204395
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Specific Offense Characteristic

Text: (A) a failure to heave to when directed by law enforcement officers, increase by 2 levels; (B) an attempt to sink the vessel, increase by 4 levels; or (C) the sinking of the vessel, increase by 8 levels. (Nov. 2009). Congress later adopted the proposed DTVIA guideline, which became effective on November 1, 2009, months after the district court sentenced defendants. See U.S.S.G. app. C at 314–16 (Nov. 2010). In defendants’ presentence investigation report (“PSI”), the probation officer calculated their advisory guidelines range as 108 to 135 months imprisonment, using the base offense level in proposed guideline amendment § 2X7.2. The probation officer added 8 levels, pursuant to § 2X7.2(b)(1)(C), because defendants sank their vessel. She also deducted 3 levels for early acceptance of responsibility and cooperation. The probation officer acknowledged that § 2X7.2 had been submitted by the United States Sentencing Commission but had not been promulgated by Congress as of the time of sentencing. The district court found that the border tunnel guideline is not “sufficiently analogous” to DTVIA violations. The court observed that “Section 555 deals with 18 problems associated with smuggling activities occurring on land, specifically between the border . . . because there [are] only two countries we border, Canada and Mexico.” The court noted, however, that the new proposed guideline for DTVIA violations, on the other hand, is “design[ed] to address problems associated with drug smuggling at sea, especially in terms of the substantial quantities of drugs that are involved in these drug smuggling ventures.” Instead of applying either provision, the district court explained that it was “rely[ing] solely on the 3553(a) factors in imposing [a] sentence on these Defendants.” The sentence the court applied corresponds to a sentence at the bottom of the guideline range that would have resulted from application of the proposed submersible vessel guideline. See U.S.S.G. § 2X7.2 (Nov. 2009).