United States v. Bell

Bell dealt crack cocaine for years and customarily cooked it in his kitchen; police stopped his car after receiving a tip and found 58 grams of crack cocaine and thousands of dollars in cash. In his home they found three police scanners, a digital scale, and drug-packaging materials. His ex-wife, who still lived in Bell’s house, had removed thousands of dollars in cash, packaged-to-sell crack cocaine, and guns from the house after he called her from jail. Based on those facts, the district court imposed a two-level enhancement to his sentence under U.S.S.G. 2D1.1 for maintaining a premises for the purpose of manufacturing and distributing drugs. The Sixth Circuit affirmed; precedents under the guideline do not carve out residences as safe havens from being drug-production premises.View "United States v. Bell" on Justia Law