Opinion ID: 3001646
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Soto-Piedra

Text: Prior to Soto’s sentencing the probation officer recommended that he be held accountable for 170 kilograms of cocaine based on Ramirez’s estimate that she obtained 5 to 7 kilograms from him each week from April to December 2004 at a price of $20,000 per kilogram. The probation officer arrived at 170 kilograms by assuming that the April-to-December period spanned 34 weeks and that Ramirez bought only 5 kilograms per week. Soto objected that the probation officer’s calculation was not meaningfully corroborated. He contended that Ramirez’s statement should be discounted because her role as an informant gave her incentive to embellish, and he also suggested through counsel that his own modest lifestyle refuted Ramirez’s assertion that he was selling roughly half a million dollars of cocaine per month. But Soto did not deny that he sold cocaine to Ramirez over an ex- tended period of time, nor did he offer any evidence of his own to contradict her estimate of their extended dealings. The district court selected a base offense level of 38, see U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(1), after concluding that Soto distributed at least 150 kilograms of cocaine. The court relied not just on Ramirez’s estimate, but also on Camarena’s recorded representation to Hernandez that Soto had been buying from him up to 5 kilograms per week during some part of the previous year. After crediting Soto for acceptance of responsibility, see U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(a), the court arrived at a total offense level of 36, which yielded a sentencing range of 210 to 262 months. The court sentenced Soto to 210 months’ imprisonment. Soto challenges the drug quantity, but he introduced no evidence calling into question the accuracy of the presentence report. When a defendant fails to do so, a 6 Nos. 07-1399 & 07-1778 district court may rely entirely on the factual account in the report. Artley, 489 F.3d at 821; United States v. Willis, 300 F.3d 803, 807 (7th Cir. 2002); United States v. Taylor, 72 F.3d 533, 547 (7th Cir. 1995). The district court therefore did not commit clear error by relying on the probation officer’s estimated cocaine quantity, and Soto’s sentence must be affirmed. Moreover, even if the sentencing court had been required to look beyond the uncontroverted presentence report, there is evidence to support the 150-kilogram finding. Camarena said during a wiretapped conversation that in the “last year” Soto would get “out up to five a week.” Camarena certainly would know how much cocaine he was supplying to Soto, and his recorded statement supports Ramirez’s assertion and the district court’s conclusion that Soto was distributing 5 kilograms per week. And the district court could have interpreted “last year” to mean that Camarena worked with Soto for at least as long as Soto was distributing cocaine to Ramirez. For us to find clear error, we would have to conclude that the district court did not arrive at a permissible view of the evidence. Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985); United States v. Marty, 450 F.3d 687, 690 (7th Cir. 2006). And that is not the case here.