De La Rosa pled guilty to importing cocaine into the United States, for which he faced an advisory Guidelines range of imprisonment of between 24 and 30 months. He was sentenced to a year-and-a-day in prison. Why?
The importation of cocaine is a serious offense. The defendant does not have a prior criminal history. He is a young man of some intelligence who had the ambition to attend college for one semester, but was unable to continue due to a lack of funds. He became involved in the importation of cocaine in order to obtain money to assist his mother, who lives on limited means in the Dominican Republic, as well as to be able to afford to continue his college education. Subsequent to arrest, the defendant attempted to cooperate fully with the government, though the information he provided did not lead to an investigation.
