Opinion ID: 418796
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Applicability of Ross

Text: 14 The appellees argue that even if Ross is given retroactive effect, it does not apply here. They argue that the customs agents must have known that the packages contained all the contraband, so that their suspicion should have focused exclusively on the packages and not on the trucks. As a consequence, the automobile search was unauthorized and a warrant was required to search the containers under the rule of United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977). Ross did not purport to overrule Chadwick. 15 The customs officers, however, remained some distance away while the defendants placed the packages inside the trucks. The officers did not see the packages nor have a chance to seize the contraband until after loading. The officers had probable cause to search both vehicles, not just the newly-discovered bales. Their suspicion did not focus solely on the packages; it was not obvious that all the contraband would be in the bales. The appellees could have easily secreted other drugs elsewhere in the vehicles. 16 In United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), the police officers had all the facts giving them probable cause to believe that contraband was in the footlocker and the suitcases before those containers were placed in the trunks of the cars. Placing the containers in the cars did not give the officers probable cause to search the entire vehicle. In Ross and in this case, the officers' suspicions were not so specific. They did not know the exact nature and packaging of the contraband transferred from the airplanes to the trucks before arriving on the scene. The officers had probable cause to search both trucks. Under Ross, they also could have opened the packages as part of that search.