Opinion ID: 195633
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Supervisory and Managerial Role Enhancement

Text: 71 Rivera challenges the three-level enhancement for playing a supervisory role which the court imposed pursuant to U.S.S.G. Sec. 3B1.1(b), claiming that the evidence demonstrated he was an underling, who merely followed orders in this organization. The court found that the defendant's role is of a manager/supervisor and it has been adequately supported by this record. We review this role-in-the-offense ruling for clear error. United States v. Jadusingh, 12 F.3d 1162, 1169 (1st Cir.1994) (citation omitted); United States v. Rodriguez Alvarado, 985 F.2d 15, 19 (1st Cir.1993) (citations omitted). 72 A three-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. Sec. 3B1.1(b) is appropriate if the government shows that the defendant 1) was a manager or supervisor of the criminal activity (but not a leader or organizer); and 2) the criminal activity involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive. Rodriguez Alvarado, 985 F.2d at 20. The terms manager and supervisor are not defined in the guidelines. A court can find that a defendant is a manager or supervisor where he exercised some degree of control over others involved in the commission of the crime or he [was] responsible for organizing others for the purpose of carrying out the crime. See Rodriguez Alvarado, 985 F.2d at 20 (quoting United States v. Fuller, 897 F.2d 1217, 1220 (1st Cir.1990)). 73 The court did not err in finding that Rivera played a managerial or supervisory role in the drug smuggling operation. The record supports the conclusion that Rivera played a predominant role in planning and organizing the logistics of this criminal operation: 1) Rivera was present at the November 27 planning meeting; 2) Rivera gave Ovalle and Linder instructions with respect to making sure Linder's boat was available to import the cocaine; 3) Rivera initially became suspicious of Linder, and then held a meeting where it was decided that Linder would be cut out of the initial attempt to import the cocaine; 4) Rivera procured another boat to be used by his cohorts in the initial attempt to import the 800 kilograms of cocaine; 5) Rivera provided Monteagudo with two firearms to be used during the drug smuggling operations; and 6) Rivera, along with Ovalle, met with Linder with respect to the logistics of importing the remaining cocaine which had been left behind in the Dominican Republic. There is also no dispute that more than five individuals were involved in the drug smuggling plan. The court properly applied the U.S.S.G. Sec. 3B1.1(b) enhancement.