Opinion ID: 351847
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Standard Applied: Vidal-Garcia

Text: 6 The government does not, nor could it, contend that the confidential tip received here meets the twin tests of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States,393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969). As this court recently stated, the 7 two-prong Aguilar-Spinelli standard requires that before probable cause for a search with or without a warrant can be said to exist, based on information acquired from a tip, the reliability both of the informant and of his information must be indicated. If the tip itself combined with the officer's knowledge of the informant cannot provide probable cause, a search may still be sustainable if the information supplied consists of such detail or is corroborated from independent sources as to remove the doubt that it is worthy of reliance. 8 United States v. Montgomery, 554 F.2d 754, 756-57 (5th Cir.), clarified on petition for rehearing, 558 F.2d 311 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 409, 54 L.Ed.2d 285 (1977); see United States v. Colon, 559 F.2d 1380 (5th Cir. 1977). But as our cases make clear, probable cause is not required to justify the type of search to which Vidal-Garcia was subjected. We believe the applicable standard of reasonable suspicion is met in a strip search case 3 where the authorities have received information as detailed as that received in this case, specifying that a named individual traveling in a specified capacity will be body carrying a particular type of contraband on a particular date and flight, where the identifying portion of that information has been verified by the authorities on the flight's arrival, and where the authorities have no reason to believe the informant is unreliable and have taken affirmative steps to insure that the informant is not being paid for the information and has no criminal record. 4 To hold otherwise would, we believe, be tantamount to requiring probable cause to justify a strip search at the border. We therefore affirm the conviction of appellant Vidal-Garcia.