Opinion ID: 712182
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The court's assessment

Text: 28 Near the conclusion of the hearing, the court announced its decision on the issue, which we cite here verbatim: 29 All right. I've given a considerable amount of thought to this case and I think the bottom line is that I'd be closing my eyes to the obvious if I were to find that the calculation by the probation officer here was inaccurate. 30 It seems to me based on the facts we have before us that, first of all, the scope of the conspiracy was to buy a large amount of cocaine, in this case ten kilograms, and that it was reasonably foreseeable to Mr. Brothers, who knew the defendant, was a cousin of the defendant, had had prior dealings with him, it was reasonably foreseeable for him to suspect that there was going to be a great deal more than five kilograms purchased. And part of that is based upon, as I said, the knowledge he has of Mr. Cosom. 31 The other part is based upon the obvious quantities of money that were involved here, that made it clear that the amount he was contributing was but a small portion of a large amount that was going to be used to purchase a substantial amount of drugs. And I think it's clearly foreseeable that that amount was over five kilograms. 32 The other facts which support that are the testimony of Mr. Cosom and the--as well as the statements he's made in the past, which I tend to believe the statements he made in the past were more accurate than those he made today in the presence of his cousin. And therefore I find that the base offense level of 32 is correct. 33