Preciado

Preciado met with a man named “El Huate,” who asked her to smuggle drugs into the United States. Preciado agreed and two weeks later El Huate came to her home in Mexico. Preciado left her two-year-old son with her sister Magdalena, who was staying at Preciado’s home. El Huate drove Preciado and her other four children, whose ages ranged from seven months to six years, to a nearby McDonald’s, where a van with 150 pounds of marijuana was waiting. Preciado drove the van to the United States with the four children, and she was detained at the border after agents found the marijuana concealed in the van’s dash, driver’s side panels and gas tank. After Preciado was arrested, Magdalena came to the border and took custody of the children.

Preciado pled guilty to importing marijuana. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 , 960. Finding that Preciado used her children as decoys to avoid detection, the district court applied a sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.4 for using a minor to avoid detection of an offense. Preciado appeals this sentencing enhancement, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

A two-level sentencing enhancement may be imposed under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.4 “[i]f the…