Opinion ID: 499444
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of motions to suppress evidence recovered after search of Florida homes.

Text: 36 The Beneventos next contend that the district court erred in denying their motions to suppress the evidence obtained from the search of their Florida homes. The Beneventos argue that the government's affidavits--upon which the search warrant applications and the magistrate's probable cause determination were made--contained serious omission[s] which patently affected the magistrate's probable cause determination. They argue, pursuant to Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), that the omissions were deliberate and materially misled the magistrate who issued the search warrants. They conclude that the search warrants were therefore illegal and that the evidence seized pursuant to the warrants should have been suppressed. The district court rejected these arguments after it found that the government's affidavits did not contain material omissions. The district court also concluded that the magistrate's finding of probable cause to search was supported by the evidence in the government's affidavits. See 649 F.Supp. at 1383-84. We agree. 37 The Beneventos point out that the search warrants were issued by the magistrate on June 4, 1986 and, at that time, no evidence was presented to the magistrate which demonstrated that the Beneventos had committed a crime since their arrest at Kennedy International Airport in June 1985. The Beneventos claim that the government failed to bring to the magistrate's attention the one year gap in the government's information as to the Beneventos' criminal activity, i.e., from June 1985 to June 1986. The Beneventos contend that this represented a material omission because, had it been brought to the magistrate's attention, it would have shown that there was no connection between the Beneventos' prior criminal activity and their current Florida homes. 38 We agree with the district court's conclusion that this claimed omission was in fact not an omission at all. As the district court stated, 39 [t]he government's affidavits ... are not misleading. They clearly identified the dates of the Beneventos' suspected criminal activity as prior to June 3, 1985, and they made no claim that there was continuing criminal activity at the Beneventos' residences. 40 See 649 F.Supp. at 1383-84. Accordingly, we find that the district court properly rejected the Beneventos' claim that the search warrant applications contained material omissions. 41 We also agree with the finding of the district court that probable cause to search the homes was present. The affidavits filed by the government in support of its search warrant applications contained extensive testimony regarding the Beneventos' involvement in an international narcotics conspiracy and contained specific statements from the government's confidential informants that provided key details of various aspects of the narcotics conspiracy. Included in the applications was the testimony of DEA Agent Pharao, who stated that, based upon his extensive experience in drug enforcement investigations, it was his opinion that drug traffickers, as the Beneventos were alleged to be, were likely to keep various items of evidence of drug-related activity including transactions records, large sums of currency, etc., in their personal homes. In addition, the warrant applications included other information that suggested a link between the Beneventos' Florida homes and their prior criminal activity. See 649 F.Supp. at 1382-83. 42 Several courts have held that a government agent's expert opinion, such as that provided by Agent Pharao here, is an important factor to be considered by the judge when making a probable cause determination. See United States v. Fama, 758 F.2d 834, 838 (2d Cir.1985) (and cases cited therein). Although Pharao's testimony, standing alone, might not be sufficient to establish a link between the Beneventos' current homes and their prior criminal activity, see United States v. Gomez, 652 F.Supp. 461, 463 (E.D.N.Y.1987), when viewed together with the other evidence in the government's affidavits, we are satisfied that probable cause to believe that evidence of prior criminal activity was located in their homes was amply demonstrated. Accordingly, we affirm district court's order which denied the Beneventos' motions to suppress the evidence obtained from their Florida homes. 43