NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 20a0423n.06 No. 18-5548 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jul 21, 2020 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE v. ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT ) COURT FOR THE EASTERN HECTOR SALAS, JR., aka Hector Salas-Pina, ) DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY ) Defendant-Appellant. ) ) BEFORE: GUY, BOGGS, and WHITE, Circuit Judges. HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Defendant-Appellant Hector Salas, Jr., appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress, arguing that a dog sniff that led to the discovery of cocaine was unconstitutional. He also appeals his convictions of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, arguing that the government presented insufficient evidence of his guilt. Thirdly, Salas appeals his above- Guidelines sentence as substantively unreasonable. We AFFIRM. I. A. The investigation that led to Salas’s arrest began in January 2017, when FBI Special Agent Michael Van Aelstyn learned that a money courier would be meeting with an undercover agent in Lexington, Kentucky for a large-scale cash delivery. Agents identified the money courier as Talia Ramos. They surveilled her during the next pickup on April 14, 2017, and observed her drive to No. 18-5548, United States v. Salas a house on Sequoia Drive (the Sequoia House) and receive a large plastic bag from Eric James. They then conducted a traffic stop of Ramos and discovered a bag with approximately $300,000 cash in her vehicle. From this point forward, Ramos cooperated with officers by acting as a confidential informant (CI) for the ongoing investigation. Ramos told Van Aelstyn that the Sequoia House was owned and occupied by Ansar McIver and alerted Van Aelstyn of an expected drug delivery to take place on April 26 at James’s mother’s house (the Shropshire House).1 On that date, video and audio surveillance revealed that Ramos met the load drivers at Aguascalientes, a local grocery store, where one of the drivers asked her if she “had a place where they could work because he said the drugs were in the trailer, and they needed a covered place to take it out.” R. 212, PID 1446. The drivers operated a truck with an attached trailer. Ramos led the drivers to the Shropshire House, where Ramos observed numerous individuals working to remove drug packages that were concealed in the axle of the attached trailer. Ramos later alerted Van Aelstyn to another drug delivery expected on May 9. This time, Ramos met the load driver at a Motel 6 before leading him back to the Shropshire House. Once at the house, Ramos observed the driver remove concealed drugs from hidden compartments in the vehicle’s wheel wells. On May 18, Van Aelstyn received a call from Ramos about yet another load of narcotics being delivered. This third tip is what eventually led to Salas’s arrest. According to Ramos, a load driver, whom she did not know at the time, contacted her to disclose that ...
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