Opinion ID: 492083
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Monte Carlo

Text: 17 Next, Rivera objects to the warrantless seizure and subsequent searches of the Monte Carlo. The automobile exception allows a warrantless search and seizure of a car so long as the search is justified by probable cause. California v. Carney, 471 U.S. 386, 105 S.Ct. 2066, 85 L.Ed.2d 406 (1985); Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). The exception recognizes both the inherently mobile nature of an automobile and the decreased expectation of privacy that an individual has in a car. Carney, 471 U.S. 386, 105 S.Ct. 2066, 85 L.Ed.2d 406 (1985). This is so even if the car is parked and stationary when agents find it. Id.; Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973). The district court found that the agents had probable cause to believe the car contained contraband. The agents seized the car after watching Rivera retrieve what appeared to be narcotics from the trunk and after noting that the car matched the key found on Rivera when he was arrested. Thus, when the agents found the Monte Carlo, they could have legally searched it. But they did not. Instead, the officers removed the car to the DEA garage and a sniff-test particularized the area to be searched. After receiving a tip that a more intense search of the car could yield more contraband, another sniff-test was conducted, and the body of the car was subsequently searched. The delay does not invalidate either search. 18 Under United States v. Johns, 469 U.S. 478, 105 S.Ct. 881, 83 L.Ed.2d 890 (1985), removing a legally seized car to DEA headquarters and there performing a search, is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The scope of the second search of the car was similarly reasonable. The second search was initiated once agents received a tip and a dog had alerted at the car (after the cocaine in the trunk had been removed). The agents removed carpeting and moved the back seat and a portion of the rear deck, revealing what appeared to be a secret compartment. The agents then removed the back seat and found the additional cocaine. This was not an unrestrained search as defendant Rivera argues. It was a reasonably restricted search, justified by probable cause. The agents' actions were justified by probable cause at all stages and hence, the search and seizure were reasonable.