Opinion ID: 426379
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: constitutionality of the stop and boarding

Text: 54 The district court rejected defendants' constitutional challenges to the Coast Guard's stopping and boarding of the RICARDO principally on the ground that these actions were appropriate in light of the Coast Guard's reasonable suspicion that the vessel was engaged in illegal activity. We see no basis for overturning this ruling. 10 55 Since the district court found, implicitly if not explicitly, that the Coast Guard's stopping and boarding of the RICARDO did not amount to an arrest of the defendants, probable cause for the Coast Guard's action was not required. See United States v. Streifel, 665 F.2d 414, 421 (2d Cir.1981). Rather, since the stopping and boarding constituted an investigatory stop, those actions were lawful if the Coast Guardsmen were  'aware of specific articulable facts, together with rational inferences from those facts that reasonably warrant[ed] suspicion' that the individual ... was, or [was] about to be engaged in criminal activity. Id. (quoting United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 884, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2581, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975)). To determine whether an officer's suspicion was reasonable, the totality of the circumstances must be considered, United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 694, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981), and due weight must be given, not to his inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch,' but to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). 56 Here the Coast Guard officers had reasonable, articulable factual grounds for suspecting that the RICARDO was engaged in drug smuggling. The Coast Guard officers who decided to intercept and investigate the RICARDO were experienced law enforcement officers who were practiced in the detection and prevention of drug smuggling activities on the seas. They had observed that the RICARDO was a fishing vessel in disrepair with no active fishing gear, that the vessel's waterline was painted artificially high (a circumstance that suggested an effort to make the vessel appear empty when in fact it was carrying cargo), that the name of the vessel was crudely painted, that the vessel was flying no flag, and that it had changed course after its detection so that it was headed away from the mainland by the time the Coast Guard cutter drew near. Ensign Willis testified that in his experience, these characteristics were often exhibited by drug smuggling vessels, and a computer search indicated that the RICARDO had been seen recently in a known drug exporting port in Colombia. In addition, there was evidence that officers on the DUANE smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from the RICARDO. Although defendants challenge Haas's testimony to this effect on the ground that it is incredible, and the testimony does appear to bespeak unusually sensitive olfactory nerves, we cannot say that the testimony was incredible as a matter of law. Thus, we may not disturb the decision of the district judge, who had the opportunity to view and assess the demeanor of the witness, to credit Haas's testimony. Given the above circumstances, the district court's finding that the stop was justified by the Coast Guard's reasonable suspicion must be sustained. 57 Finally, we find no basis for concluding that the Coast Guard's stopping and boarding of the vessel were accomplished in an unreasonably intrusive manner. The RICARDO stopped immediately upon being asked to do so, a request which followed the RICARDO crew member's thumbs-up signal in response to the Coast Guard's attempted request to board. The Coast Guard made no show of force to accomplish the stopping. Nor was force used in the boarding. The court found that although the boarding party carried weapons, they kept their weapons pointed in the air and never aimed them at the defendants. Likewise, the machine gun aboard the DUANE was always pointed in the air rather than at the RICARDO, and the DUANE's five-inch gun was never loaded or manned. 58 Given the governmental interest in preventing the smuggling of narcotics into the United States, we conclude that in the totality of the circumstances, including the facts that the RICARDO was originally seen to be headed on a course toward the United States mainland, that there was a reasonable basis for suspecting that the RICARDO was engaged in smuggling marijuana, and that there was a minimal show of force in connection with the stopping and boarding, defendants' constitutional challenge to the stopping and boarding was properly rejected. With that rejection, any challenge by the defendants to the lawfulness of the seizure of the marijuana must also fail, since defendants have no personal rights, see Part II.B. above, to challenge the seizure independently of the events that preceded it. United States v. Williams, supra, 589 F.2d at 214.