Opinion ID: 203021
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Calculation of Drug Quantity and Amount of Money Laundered

Text: Osorio contends that the district court erred in sentencing him on the basis of sixty-seven kilograms of cocaine on the drug charges and $1.8 million on the money laundering charge. He argues that the court erred in using a preponderance of the evidence standard and that, even if that standard applies, there were insufficient facts to support the court's findings. We disagree on both counts. [5] Osorio argues that, where life in prison is the authorized maximum sentence, the finding of fact used to determine the sentence must be arrived at by proof beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury or a defendant's admission. The Supreme Court held in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and confirmed in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 244, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), that any fact necessary to support a sentence exceeding the statutory maximum (other than a prior conviction) must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt or admitted by the defendant. This standard does not help Osorio because he pled guilty to charges that carried a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison. See Obershaw v. Lanman, 453 F.3d 56, 60 (1st Cir.2006). Osorio argues  for the first time on appeal  that the higher evidentiary standard also should apply where the sentencing range includes life imprisonment because the defendant has more at risk, and his rights to due process and proof beyond a reasonable doubt thus carry more weight. Osorio cites no precedent in support of this proposition, and our case law is to the contrary. We have stated unequivocally that, under the advisory Guidelines, judicial fact-finding on drug quantity is constitutionally permissible, within Apprendi 's limits, see, e.g., United States v. Pierre, 484 F.3d 75, 88 (1st Cir.2007), and we have applied that principle even when defendants were subject to life imprisonment, see, e.g., United States v. González-Vélez, 466 F.3d 27, 40-41 (1st Cir.2006). The district court's fact-finding was thus not error, plain or otherwise. Osorio's contention that the evidence does not support the court's factual findings is also unpersuasive. His arguments mischaracterize the evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing and the court's calculations based on that evidence. In his brief, Osorio describes Cruz's testimony about the drugs transported from Queens to Massachusetts as follows: In her first trip, which was for [Osorio], she sold 50 kilos. In her second trip, which was for co-defendant Ar[]ango, she sold 10 kilos. Thus, according to the prosecutor's key witness, Mr. Osorio was responsible for just fifty kilos of cocaine, not sixty kilos. However, Cruz testified that she brought cocaine from New York to Massachusetts in five separate trips, all of which were arranged at Osorio's request. Cruz also testified that Osorio told her that the first fifty kilograms she brought back from Queens was supplied by Arango. She met with the same people who had been involved in the first Queens trip on the second trip, when she transported ten additional kilograms. In two trips to the Bronx, she picked up twenty-five and fifty kilograms. She further testified that on a subsequent trip to New York, Osorio met her in Queens, transferred fifty kilograms to her, and directed her to transport the drugs to Massachusetts. Thus, Cruz's testimony indicated Osorio's involvement in a total of 185 kilograms: the sixty kilograms picked up in Queens in two trips involving the same people; the seventy-five kilograms picked up in two trips to the Bronx; and the fifty additional kilograms that she received directly from Osorio during her third trip to Queens. [6] Thus, the evidence amply supported the court's finding that Osorio was responsible for the transport of at least sixty kilograms of cocaine from New York to Massachusetts. Osorio also contends that neither Cruz's nor Vallejo's testimony linked him to the seven kilograms of cocaine Cruz bought from Tavarez to sell to Camilo Aguirre. Again, this contention mischaracterizes the evidence. When asked what connection the defendants had to these seven kilograms of cocaine, Vallejo responded that they had sold it to . . . Alonso Tavarez, and then Alonso Tavarez had handed it to Liliana Cruz. Cruz also testified that the drugs she bought from Tavarez were supplied by the defendants and that, because the defendants did not want the same person to handle the money laundering and the drug sales, she and Tavarez had not mentioned the details of this particular transaction to defendants until after her arrest. Thus, the record supports the district court's finding as to the seven kilograms of cocaine from this transaction. [7] Osorio also challenges the court's finding regarding the amount of money involved in the money-laundering conspiracy. By his own accounting, Osorio contends that there was testimony as to only $1.35 million  consisting of $500,000 and $600,000 that Cruz transported from New York to Massachusetts at the defendants' behest, plus $250,000 related to the sale of the seven kilograms of cocaine to Camilo Aguirre  rather than the $1.8 million on which his sentence was based. This calculation misstates the evidence and the court's finding in two respects. First, money from the sale of the seven kilograms of cocaine was not, in fact, included in the money laundering total. Second, Osorio's calculation ignores Cruz's testimony that she received approximately $700,000 from Tavarez and the Cataños in the first several months of 2000, and that she distributed these funds at the defendants' direction. Correctly totaling this quantity of money yields $1.8 million. [8] In addition to Cruz's testimony, the court also reviewed corroborating documentary evidence in the form of package receipts, wire transfer receipts, and Cruz's own accounting records. Also, the government presented transcripts of recorded telephone conversations in which Cruz and Arango went over the amounts of money she had received from the Cataños and Tavarez. In sum, overwhelming evidence supported the court's finding that $1.8 million was involved in the money-laundering conspiracy.