Case: 18-13734 Date Filed: 05/14/2019 Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 18-13734
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 9:18-cr-80064-RLR-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
WILFREDO ROY MADRIGAL,
a.k.a. WOLFMAN,
a.k.a. FREDO,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
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(May 14, 2019)
Before TJOFLAT, JILL PRYOR and BLACK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
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Wilfredo Madrigal appeals his 120-month sentence for distributing heroin.
Madrigal contends the district court improperly classified him as a career offender
based on two prior convictions for drug-related offenses under Fla. Stat. § 893.13.
Madrigal asserts the convictions should not qualify as predicate offenses under
U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b) because the state law lacked a mens rea element.
We review de novo the district court’s decision to classify a defendant as a
career offender under § 4B1.1. United States v. Gibson, 434 F.3d 1234, 1243 (11th
Cir. 2006). “We are bound by prior panel decisions unless or until we overrule
them while sitting en banc, or they are overruled by the Supreme Court.” United
States v. Jordan, 635 F.3d 1181, 1189 (11th Cir. 2011).
A defendant is a career offender if (1) the defendant is at least 18 years old
at the time of the instant offense of conviction, (2) the instant offense of conviction
is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, and (3) the
defendant has at least two prior convictions for either a crime of violence or a
controlled substance offense. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a). A “controlled substance
offense” is an offense under federal or state law, punishable by more than one year
of imprisonment, that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or
dispensing of a controlled substance, or possession of a controlled substance, with
intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute, or dispense. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b).
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In United States v. Smith, we held that a prior conviction under Fla. Stat.
§ 893.13 was a “controlled substance offense” under § 4B1.2(b) and that the
definition of “controlled substance offense” under § 4B1.2(b) does not require
“that a predicate state offense include[] an element of mens rea with respect to the
illicit nature of the controlled substance.” 775 F.3d 1262, 1268 (11th Cir. 2014);
see also United States v. Pridgeon, 853 F.3d 1192, 1200 (11th Cir. 2017) (rejecting
the argument that Smith was wrongly decided and affirming Smith’s holding that
convictions under § 893.13 qualify as “controlled substance offenses” under the
Sentencing Guidelines), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 215 (2017). In Smith, we stated
there was no need to look at the generic definition of “controlled substance
offense” by comparing Fla. Stat. § 893.13 to its federal analogue because the term
is defined in the Sentencing Guidelines. 775 F.3d at 1267.
Madrigal’s argument his prior convictions under Fla. Stat. § 893.13 were not
“controlled substance offenses” under the Guidelines because the state law lacked
a mens rea element is foreclosed by our decision in Smith. Accordingly, the
district court did not err in applying an enhanced base offense level based on its
determination that his prior Fla. Stat. § 893.13 convictions were controlled
substance offenses, and we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
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