PER CURIAM:1

Hector Nunez and Armitichell Davidson appeal the sentences imposed (each received a substantial downward departure to the mandatory minimum) following their guilty plea convictions for conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and cocaine, in violation of

21 U.S.C. § 846. They maintain that the district court erred by refusing to depart downward, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1, below the 120 months mandatory minimum sentence.^[2]

Nunez also contends that the Government waived the contention that the district court erred initially departing downward to a prison term of only 30 months. The Government timely filed, and the district court timely acted upon, a FED. R. CRIM. P. 35(c) motion to correct that initial sentence. See United States v. Bridges, 116 F.3d 1110, 1112 (5th Cir. 1997); United States v. Gonzalez, 163 F.3d 255, 263-64 (5th Cir. 1998).

For both Nunez and Davidson, the district court determined properly that it was not authorized to depart below the mandatory minimum because the Government had not requested such a departure either in the defendants’ plea agreements or in their § 5K1.1 motions. Melendez v. United States, 518 U.S. 120, 125-26, 129-30 (1996). Because the district court did not violate the law in imposing the sentences, the extent of the downward departures may not be challenged on appeal. See United States v. Alvarez, 51 F.3d 36, 39 (5th Cir. 1995). (In any event, the contentions regarding more lenient sentences received by codefendants are meritless. See United States v. McKinney, 53 F.3d 664, 678 (5th Cir.) cert. denied, 516 U.S. 901, 903, 970 (1995).)

The sentences of Nunez and Davidson are

AFFIRMED.