Opinion ID: 658545
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Quantity of Heroin

Text: 171 Any contention that the court erred in calculating the base offense level of these defendants on the basis of more than 10 kilograms of heroin is frivolous. Under the Guidelines, the base offense level for narcotics offenses  'is to be calculated after taking into account the entire quantity involved in the defendant's demonstrated narcotics activity.'  United States v. Rivera, 971 F.2d 876, 892 (2d Cir.1992) (quoting United States v. Schaper, 903 F.2d 891, 898 (2d Cir.1990)). A defendant who participates in jointly-undertaken narcotics activity is to be held accountable for the reasonably foreseeable conduct of others in furtherance of that activity. See United States v. Joyner, 924 F.2d 454, 459 (2d Cir.1991). 172 The evidence at trial was overwhelming that the conspiratorial activity involved more than 10 kilograms of heroin. It included evidence that a mill in which Velasquez worked produced 6 kilograms of heroin per week; that Hernandez obtained some 700 grams of heroin a week for the Organization in 1986; that Rosa obtained only 700-gram blocks of pure heroin from his Chinese suppliers; and that Melendez himself, in the four months just prior to his arrest, grossed $8-10 million.