By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 22, 2013//
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
Criminal
Sentencing — organizer enhancement
Where the defendant was the contact person for a gang of thieves, his sentence was properly enhanced four levels under U.S.S.G. 3B1.1(a).
“[H]is role as contact person made him the gang’s leader, or so the judge could find. The defendant used his information about what the fences wanted to find unguarded truck yards containing trucks likely to contain cargoes that the fences would buy, to direct the other members to those truck yards, and to tell them (after consultation with the fences) which trucks in the yards to steal and where to deliver the cargoes to the fences. The fences paid him for the cargoes and he split the money among the gang’s members (including himself). So he was the paymaster. He brought his brother and one other person (a driver) into the gang, so was a recruiter, and he searched out warehouse space in which to store stolen merchandise to await directions from the fences. Without him or someone in his position the gang would have fallen apart. The gang needed a leader in order to function, and he was the leader.”
Affirmed.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stadtmueller, J., Posner, J.