Velasquez-Mercado v. United States

How later courts describe this case

• recognizing the question but basing enhancement under section 3C1.1 on additional finding that defendant threatened witness
• recognizing exception for search incident to arrest as matter of state constitutional law
• sexually abused female illegal aliens were not “victims” to crime of conviction, the transportation of illegal aliens; accordingly, § 3A1.1 does not apply
• “[i]t is by now common knowledge that cocaine is often packaged as a white powder in small plastic bags” [internal quotation marks omitted]
• “expert testimony that individuals possessing large amounts of drugs often carry weapons to protect their goods”
• “ ‘[a] defendant claiming discriminatory prosecution must show (1) that others similarly situated have generally not been prosecuted and that he has been singled out and (2