United States v. Rubi Martinez-Soto

MEMORANDUM

Rubi Roxana Martinez-Soto challenges the 48-month, below-Guidelines sentence imposed by the district court following her guilty-plea conviction for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1), (b)(l)(A)(viii), and importation of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 (a), 960(a)(1) and 960(b)(1)(H). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

Martinez-Soto claims that the district court applied the wrong legal standard to her request for a -minor role reduction under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(b). Our review is de novo. See United States v. Hurtado, 760 F.3d 1065, 1068 (9th Cir.2014). The district court properly compared Martinez-Soto’s culpability to that of the average participants in the overall drug trafficking scheme in which she was involved. See id. at 1068-69 .

Moreover, the district court did not clearly err in finding that Martinez-Soto’s role in the drug trafficking scheme was not minor, given that she was paid by the traffickers to import a substantial quantity of pure methamphetaniine into this country, and had also worked as a drug courier for them two days before her arrest. See United…