Opinion ID: 3064166
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dell

Text: On appeal, Dell argues that the district court erred by failing to “both determine the scope of [his] criminal activity . . . and to specify the amount of crack cocaine attributable to . . . Dell in the entire case.” Dell argues that the evidence indicates that the “scope” of his criminal activity was limited to the drug transactions taking place in February, September, and October 2005, which totaled 46.39 grams of crack cocaine. He stresses that, with respect to other controlled buys, his name was not mentioned, and the confidential sources (“CS”) did not indicate that he was involved. Dell argues that because the parties who testified to his involvement gave inconsistent testimony, no “credible evidence” supports the inference that he was more involved in the conspiracy. 10 We review a district court’s determination of the amount of drugs for which a defendant is held accountable at sentencing for clear error. United States v. Lee, 68 F.3d 1267, 1274 (11th Cir. 1995). “When a defendant objects to a factual finding that is used in calculating his guideline sentence, such as drug amount, the government bears the burden of establishing the disputed fact by a preponderance of the evidence.” United States v. Rodriguez, 398 F.3d 1291, 1296 (11th Cir. 2005). “For sentencing purposes a member of a drug conspiracy is liable for his own acts and the acts of others in furtherance of the activity that the defendant agreed to undertake and that are reasonably foreseeable in connection with that activity.” United States v. Ismond, 993 F.2d 1498, 1499 (11th Cir. 1993). [T]o determine a defendant’s liability for the acts of others, the district court must first make individualized findings concerning the scope of criminal activity undertaken by a particular defendant. Once the extent of a defendant’s participation in the conspiracy is established, the court can determine the drug quantities reasonably foreseeable in connection with that level of participation. If the court does not make individualized findings, the sentence may nevertheless be upheld if the record supports the amount of drugs attributed to a defendant. Id. (citations omitted). The district court must take into account all “relevant conduct” when determining the quantity of drugs attributable to the defendant, i.e. “all acts and omissions committed, aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, 11 induced, procured, or willfully caused by the defendant[.]” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(A). If the case involves drugs, “the defendant is accountable for all quantities of contraband with which he was directly involved and, in the case of a jointly undertaken criminal activity, all reasonably foreseeable quantities of contraband that were within the scope of the criminal activity that he jointly undertook.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, comment. (n.2); U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). Because “the [g]uidelines require a district court to attribute to a defendant all drugs foreseeably distributed pursuant to a common scheme or plan of which that defendant’s offense of conviction was a part,” a defendant may be held accountable for drugs that were not related specifically to his counts of conviction and for actions taken by others. States v. Mertilus, 111 F.3d 870, 873 (11th Cir. 1997) (quotations and citation omitted). Because the government presented sufficient evidence to show the quantity of crack cocaine attributed to the conspiracy and that Dell was extensively involved in the conspiracy to distribute the entire quantity of crack cocaine, we hold that the district court did not clearly err holding him accountable for 1.5 kilograms of crack cocaine. Accordingly, we affirm.