Opinion ID: 655893
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: calculation of quantity

Text: 42 Pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(d), all counts charging drug-related offenses and offenses involving use of a communications system for drug business are grouped together. When a defendant has been convicted of conspiracy to distribute drugs, the court will attribute to a defendant the quantity of drugs which he should have reasonably foreseen would be involved in the operation, regardless of whether that amount was specified in the indictment. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, commentary n. 1. 43 Angulo-Lopez's, Uriel's and Barron's pre-sentence reports stated that the amount of drugs seized in this case was 12 kilograms of heroin, which required an offense level of 36. Based on the testimony at trial, the pre-sentence reports stated that an additional 150 kilos of cocaine were involved in the distribution scheme, and recommended that the base offense level should be 38. The district court accepted the recommendations of the pre-sentence reports. Further adjustments were made for the appellants' leadership roles in the offense; these adjustments are not appealed. 44 The three appellants contest the district court's findings as to the amount of drugs foreseeable to them on several grounds. First, they argue that the district court erred in using a test of foreseeability rather than actual knowledge because the evidence in support of the conspiracy conviction was insufficient. The sufficiency of the evidence has already been discussed. The district court properly employed a test of foreseeability when evaluating the quantity of drugs to be assigned to each appellant. 45 Second, Uriel and Angulo-Lopez challenge the court's factual findings. Uriel essentially challenges the court's finding that Angulo-Lopez's drugs should be attributed to him. During the trial, there was testimony that at least four separate 50-kilogram shipments of cocaine and heroin connected to Uriel had been shipped to Angulo-Lopez, (Uriel PRS at 4) that Uriel had supplied Angulo-Lopez with large amounts of drugs on two occasions, and that Uriel referred his own distributors to Angulo-Lopez when he could not supply them (18 RT 103, 13 RT 43-44). In short, a close business relationship existed between Angulo-Lopez and Uriel. The evidence supports the court's attribution of Angulo-Lopez's drug amounts to Uriel. 46 Angulo-Lopez challenges the finding that the additional 30 kilograms of heroin and 150 kilograms of cocaine were foreseeable to him. What Angulo-Lopez is actually challenging, however, is the district court's evaluation of the credibility of Jesusa Gallagher, his girlfriend. Although a defendant at sentencing may introduce evidence concerning credibility, it is well settled that it up to the district court to evaluate the weight it will give to a witness' testimony. Even after hearing vague arguments from Angulo-Lopez about Gallager's motive to lie, the court explicitly found her testimony credible. (ST at 40) In addition, the court relied on the testimony of other witnesses who received multi-kilograms of cocaine from Angulo-Lopez and considered that (ST at 38) the government had seized 39 empty kilogram wrappers (ST at 37). The district court's finding in regard to Angulo-Lopez is affirmed.