In Place, the defendant's luggage was seized by Customs officials at LaGuardia Airport after he acted suspiciously upon questioning. After first moving the defendant's luggage to JFK Airport, government agents retained the luggage for ninety minutes to await the arrival of a narcotics dog. Nevertheless, the Court held that the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the ninety-minute delay was longer than reasonably necessary to confirm or dispel the initial suspicion. Thus, at issue in Place was the length of seizure before the canine sniff test was performed. Here, defendant argues that his luggage was detained for an unreasonable period of time after the lawful discovery of contraband by Customs agents.
Place is therefore inapposite.
As contraband, an instrumentality of a crime, and evidence of a crime, defendant's luggage and its contents could be seized and held by Customs officials or the Vermont State Police pending prosecution. Defendant has failed to articulate how the retention of his luggage for five days for further investigation, to transfer it from New York to Vermont and to arrange a controlled delivery in Vermont, violated the Fourth Amendment. Defendant also appeals the court's denial of his motion for suppression under Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution, arguing that even if no violations of the Fourth Amendment exist, the conduct of the Customs officials had to pass muster under the Vermont Constitution as well. The trial court rejected defendant's state constitutional claim on grounds that the Supremacy Clause and the express delegation of powers to the Congress in the United States Constitution bars reconsideration of the lawfulness of the Customs officials' conduct by Vermont courts under the Vermont Constitution. We defer to federal law where the federal interest in the conduct at issue outweighs Vermont's interest.