United States v. Rene Alvarez-Cardenas

Alvarez-Cardenas (“Alvarez”) challenges the district court’s acceptance of the probation officer’s presentence report which determined that at least 500 grams of cocaine were involved in his offense for the purpose of computing a base offense level. He also claims that the court failed to make specific findings regarding his objections to the presentence report. Finally, he contends that the district court erred in not making a downward departure from the Guidelines for the possibility of deportation. We affirm.

JURISDICTION

The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231 . We have jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (a).

BACKGROUND FACTS

Erazo-Cassorla (“Erazo”) was the subject of an ongoing DEA investigation in the spring of 1988. As part of the investigation, a confidential informant (“informant”) arranged to buy 500 grams of cocaine from Erazo for the sum of $13,000. Although Alvarez may not have expected to receive any of the money from the sale, he did become aware of the fact that the sale was to take place. He offered to drive Erazo to the hotel for the stated purpose of making the illegal sale. When they arrived at the hotel, Erazo first went to…