United States v. Carlos Cedeno

── United States v. Carlos Cedeno ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: June 05, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 25-12255 Document: 23-1 Date Filed: 06/05/2026 Page: 1 of 12 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-12255 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus CARLOS RAFAEL TELLO CEDENO, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:16-cr-00518-WFJ-TGW-1 ____________________ Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and HULL, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Defendant Carlos Rafael Tello Cedeno appeals the district court’s denial of his 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) motion to reduce his sentence. Particularly, Cedeno contends the district court abused USCA11 Case: 25-12255 Document: 23-1 Date Filed: 06/05/2026 Page: 2 of 12 2 Opinion of the Court 25-12255 its discretion when it denied his motion based on its consideration of the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors. After careful review, we affirm. I. BACKGROUND A. Offense Conduct On November 21, 2016, a United States Coast Guard (“Coast Guard”) patrol aircraft detected two suspicious vessels within the international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The Coast Guard diverted one of its nearby ships, the USCGC Mellon, in an effort to initiate a right-of-visit boarding. A helicopter was launched from the USCGC Mellon to pursue the suspicious vessels. Defendant Cedeno served as the master of one of the vessels—a go-fast boat called the El Chespi. During the pursuit, Coast Guard personnel in the helicopter observed crew members of the El Chespi jettisoning bales of suspected narcotics overboard. Additional packages and fuel containers remained on the deck of the El Chespi. The Coast Guard helicopter disabled the El Chespi with gunfire. Coast Guard personnel boarded the boat and arrested its three crew members, including defendant Cedeno. The Coast Guard later recovered forty bales of cocaine weighing 787.6 kilograms, all of which had been thrown overboard by crew members of the El Chespi. USCA11 Case: 25-12255 Document: 23-1 Date Filed: 06/05/2026 Page: 3 of 12 25-12255 Opinion of the Court 3 B. Conviction and Sentence Following capture aboard the El Chespi, defendant Cedeno and other defendants were indicted in the Middle District of Florida on two counts of violating 46 U.S.C. § 70503, which outlaws certain conduct aboard “vessel[s] subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.” 46 U.S.C. § 70503(a), (e)(1). Count One charged Cedeno and his co-defendants with conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of a substance containing cocaine. Count Two charged Cedeno and his co-defendants with the underlying substantive count of possessing with intent to distribute that cocaine. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Cedeno pled guilty to Count One of the indictment. Therein, the government agreed to seek dismissal of Count T