UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

August Term 2020

(Argued: April 21, 2021 Decided: November 17, 2021)

Docket Nos. 19-4208-cr, 19-4231-cr

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Appellee,

v.

HEYDER RENTERIA SOLIS, Defendant,

FERNEY SALAS TORRES, SAUL CALONJES SALAS, Defendants-Appellants.

ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK Before: CHIN and PARK, Circuit Judges, and BOLDEN, District Judge. *

Appeals from judgments of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Sullivan, J.) convicting defendants-appellants Ferney Salas Torres and Saul Calonjes Salas, upon their guilty pleas, of conspiring to manufacture, distribute, or possess a controlled substance on a vessel, and sentencing Salas Torres principally to 240 months' imprisonment and Calonjes Salas principally to 180 months' imprisonment. Defendants-appellants contend that the district court erred in its application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines by (1) denying a mitigating role reduction and (2) applying a sentencing enhancement for acting as pilot, captain, or navigator. They also argue that the district court imposed substantively unreasonable sentences.

AFFIRMED.

SEBASTIAN SWETT, Assistant United States Attorney (Danielle R. Sassoon, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for Audrey Strauss, Acting *Judge Victor A. Bolden, of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, sitting by designation. -2- United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, New York, for Appellee.

SAM A. SCHMIDT, Law Office of Sam A. Schmidt, New York, New York, for Defendant-Appellant Ferney Salas Torres.

JEREMY SCHNEIDER, Rothman, Schneider, Soloway & Stern, LLP, New York, New York (Rachel Perillo and Robert A. Soloway, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant Saul Calonjes Salas. ___________ CHIN, Circuit Judge:

Defendants-appellants Ferney Salas Torres ("Torres") and Saul Calonjes Salas ("Salas") appeal from judgments entered December 10 and 12, 2019, respectively, following their guilty pleas, convicting them of conspiring to manufacture, distribute, or possess a controlled substance on a vessel in violation of 46 U.S.C. §§ 70504(b)(2) and 70506 and 21 U.S.C. § 960(b)(2)(B). The district court sentenced Torres principally to 240 months' imprisonment and Salas principally to 180 months' imprisonment. On appeal, Torres and Salas challenge their sentences on procedural grounds, arguing that the district court erred by denying minor-role reductions pursuant to U.S.S.G. §§ 3B1.2 and 2D1.1(a)(5)(iii) and applying two-level enhancements for their roles as pilot or navigator of a vessel carrying controlled substances pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(3)(C). They

-3- also contend that the district court did not give appropriate weight to the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors and therefore imposed substant