Opinion ID: 750120
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Determining the Conspiracy's Total Heroin Distribution

Text: 28 for Sentencing and Forfeiture Purposes 29 The district court's calculation of the conspiracy's total heroin distribution formed the basis of two important decisions. First, this figure established the appellants' base offense levels under the Sentencing Guidelines. Second, it determined the amount of unrecovered narcotics proceeds that they were ordered to forfeit to the Government pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 853. Law enforcement officials seized just over one kilogram of heroin from the appellants, but the evidence presented at trial indicated that this kilogram was merely a drop in the bucket of the conspiracy's total distribution. Application Note 12 to USSG § 2D1.1 mandates that [w]here there is no drug seizure or the amount seized does not reflect the scale of the offense, the court shall approximate the quantity of the controlled substance. Based on this statutory command, Judge Coar computed a total amount of 75.4 kilograms, which placed the appellants at base offense level 38. Judge Coar also used the total distribution figure to fashion a joint-and-several liability forfeiture order against all appellants (except Jamie Key) in the amount of $3,341,045.20. 30 Judge Coar based his quantity computation upon recorded conversations among the co-conspirators, their bookkeeping records, and informant testimony, as well as the average purities and weights of the heroin purchased by the Government's informant over a six-month period. The district court took note of Samir Hameen's recorded statements to the conspiracy's wholesale supplier that we come prob[ably] four, maybe three, four times in one month and that we've been doing this for over a year ... we come back regular, like milkmen. Despite concluding that Hameen's recorded statements, by themselves, did not prove the number of the conspiracy's wholesale purchases, the court considered the statements along with all other evidence at trial to estimate a figure of three wholesale purchases every month for at least one year (thirty-six total purchases). The court set the purity of this heroin at 70%, based on the facts that the heroin seized on Samir Hameen at his arrest was 70% pure and that an expert witness at trial testified that large quantities of heroin of this sort were usually 70-90% pure. The court found that the conspiracy bought approximately 500 grams at each wholesale purchase based on the amount seized on Hameen at the time of his arrest (500 grams) and recorded conversations in which the conspirators discussed purchasing 500 grams from Sam. This yielded a total figure of 18 kilograms (36 purchases of 500 grams). 31 The court gleaned from these purchases the total amount of heroin distributed by the conspiracy. The sales fell into two general categories: high-purity, multi-gram packages and low-purity, half-gram packages. Judge Coar used the purchases of the Government's informant, Fred Kinnie, as a good, average sample of the purity of the heroin in the two different categories. The multiple-gram packages, by weighted average, were 56.5% pure, while the half-gram packages averaged only a 7.7% purity; because the conspiracy purchased 70%-pure heroin, these averages indicated that the appellants diluted multi-gram packages by a factor of 1.24 and diluted the half-gram packages by a factor of 9. The latter figure was corroborated by Appellant Brock's statement to Kinnie that the multi-gram heroin packages could be diluted approximately eight to ten times before resale. 32 The court then estimated the amount of each type of sale by again using Kinnie's undercover purchases as a baseline. Sixty-two percent of these buys, by weight, involved multiple-gram packages (44.1 grams), and thirty-eight percent were in half-gram increments (25 grams). Based on the 18,000 grams of heroin purchased by the conspiracy, the district court determined that 62% (11,160 grams) went to multi-gram sales and 38% (6,840 grams) was resold in half-gram packages. The court then multiplied these subtotals by the respective dilution factors (11,160 multiplied by 1.24 = 13,838.4 grams, and 6,840 multiplied by 9 = 61,560 grams) and added the two subtotals together to reach the total amount of heroin distributed by the conspiracy (61,560 grams + 13,838.4 grams = 75,398.4 grams = 75.4 kilograms). 33 Likewise, the court determined the amount of forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. § 853 by multiplying the two categories of sales by their average sale prices (as reflected in the sales to Kinnie, the conspiracy's bookkeeping ledgers, and the appellants' recorded telephone conversations). Half-gram packages sold for $20 each; thus, the 61,560 grams yielded $2,462,400 in proceeds. The appellants sold multi-gram packages, on average, to Kinnie at $253 per gram; those sales of 13,838.4 grams, therefore, yielded $3,501,115.20 in proceeds. The court added these two subtotals together ($5,963,515.20), but then subtracted the purchase price of the 18 kilograms of heroin ($2,250,000) and the value of the appellants' seized property ($372,470). This produced a total forfeiture figure of $3,341,045.20. 34 The Government was required to prove the total amount of heroin distributed by the conspiracy for sentencing and forfeiture purposes by a preponderance of the evidence. See United States v. Magana, 118 F.3d 1173, 1205 (7th Cir.1997); United States v. Howard, 80 F.3d 1194, 1202 (7th Cir.1996). The calculation of this amount is a factual determination that we review only for clear error. See United States v. Edwards, 115 F.3d 1322, 1325 (7th Cir.1997); United States v. Robinson, 96 F.3d 246, 252 (7th Cir.1996). Appellants correctly point out that a district court cannot base its calculation on pure speculation or nebulous eyeballing of the conspiracy's activities. United States v. Duarte, 950 F.2d 1255, 1265 (7th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 859, 113 S.Ct. 174, 121 L.Ed.2d 120 (1992). There must be some room for speculation and reasonable estimation, however, because USSG § 2D1.1 mandates that courts shall approximate the quantity of the controlled substance (emphasis added) when the amount seized does not reflect the true scale of the offenders' activities. Appellants are simply mistaken in their belief that only the amount of heroin actually seized by law enforcement officials can be used to determine their sentences. Courts should indeed proceed cautiously when making quantity determinations, but the Sentencing Guidelines do not allow courts to blind themselves to a large-scale drug conspiracy's activities over a long period of time. 35 Judge Coar's approximations in this case were conservative and fit comfortably within our precedent. The percentages and quantities were not pulled out of thin air, like those figures criticized in United States v. Henderson, 58 F.3d 1145, 1152 (7th Cir.1995). See also United States v. Sepulveda, 15 F.3d 1161, 1197 (1st Cir.1993), cert. denied, 512 U.S. 1223, 114 S.Ct. 2714, 129 L.Ed.2d 840 (1994) (vacating sentence based on unsupported average drug quantities and number of smuggling trips). Rather, the purity multipliers were based on heroin actually purchased from the appellants, and the amount of heroin purchased by the conspiracy was revealed by the appellants themselves in recorded telephone conversations. The prices per unit were based on a series of actual sales to an undercover operative over a five-month period. This case is unlike United States v. Shonubi, 998 F.2d 84, 89-90 (2d Cir.1993), in which the district court simply multiplied the quantity of drugs seized in one smuggling trip by the total number of trips. Here, Judge Coar made his determinations based on a series of undercover purchases made over a five-month period, as well as the appellants' own admissions in recorded conversations regarding their activities. This case is much more closely related to decisions such as United States v. Golden, 102 F.3d 936, 944 (7th Cir.1996), United States v. Taylor, 72 F.3d 533, 542 (7th Cir.1995), and United States v. Ferguson, 35 F.3d 327, 333 (7th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1100, 115 S.Ct. 1832, 131 L.Ed.2d 752 (1995), in which we approved a district court's use of representative dollar and drug amounts transacted during an average day, average drug prices, and an approximate number of days of a conspiracy's operations. 36 Not only were the district court's calculations reasonable, they were very generous to the appellants. Judge Coar easily could have determined from the evidence at trial that even more than 38% of the conspiracy's distribution was through half-gram packages. Agent Clouse's interpretation of the conspiracy's bookkeeping records, for instance, suggested that the appellants distributed more than 38% of their heroin in small amounts. With the large multiplier connected to these low-purity sales, the total quantity of heroin would have skyrocketed. Furthermore, the district court calculated the conspiracy's activities over a twelve-month period even though seized bookkeeping records showed that the conspiracy operated for at least fourteen months. It is important to note, as a final matter, that even with these conservative calculations, the quantity of heroin attributed to the conspiracy was over two-and-a-half times the maximum amount (30 kilograms) addressed by the Sentencing Guidelines; any quantity of heroin above 30 kilograms falls under base offense level 38. The appellants are simply unable to convince us that the district court clearly erred in its quantity determination of 75.4 kilograms, much less that the court instead should have found the amount to be less than 30 kilograms. Thus, the district court's sentences and forfeiture order must stand.