U.S. v. Guzman-Ramirez

Dist. Ct. did not err in imposing 72-month, below guidelines sentence on drug conspiracy charge, even though defendant argued that Dist. Ct. improperly failed to apply minor-role downward adjustment on his offense level under section 3B1.2(b) of USSG. Dist. Ct. could properly find that defendant was not substantially less culpable than two other “average participant” conspirators involved in same charged conspiracy, where conspiracy’s leaders placed substantial amount of trust in defendant due to his role as point of contact between other members of conspiracy, his agreement to store half of 50-kilogram load of cocaine at issue in conspiracy and his knowledge of amount of cocaine being sent to others. Fact that defendant deemed himself as mere drug courier did not require different result. Also, fact that defendant received longer sentence that co-conspirator, who was paid more for his services to conspiracy, did not require different result, since said individual, who was sentenced by different Dist. Ct. judge, had not been sentenced by time of defendant’s sentence.