Contreras

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 08-50126 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  DC No. 2:06-cr-00353 SJO

KATIE SUE CONTRERAS,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California S. James Otero, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 19, 2008—Pasadena, California

Filed September 17, 2009

Before: Myron H. Bright,* Michael Daly Hawkins, and A. Wallace Tashima, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Tashima

*The Honorable Myron H. Bright, Senior United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation.

13485 UNITED STATES v. CONTRERAS 13487

COUNSEL

Michael Jay Stern, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Los Angeles, Cal- ifornia, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Thomas W. Kielty, Los Angeles, California, for the defendant-appellant.

OPINION

TASHIMA, Circuit Judge:

Katie Sue Contreras was convicted for her participation in a drug-smuggling conspiracy operated out of Ironwood State Prison, where she worked as a prison cook. She appeals her 13488 UNITED STATES v.…