Opinion ID: 777310
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Seizure By Detective Martin

Text: 56 Finally, we turn to the seizure by Detective Martin at the airport. We first note that, unlike the seizure by the airport security personnel, the seizure by Detective Martin cannot be justified as a brief investigatory detention supportable by less than probable cause. This is because, if probable cause did not exist at the time Martin seized the briefcase at LaGuardia, no new information supporting probable cause became available until the positive alert by Brent the next day, and the detention in the interim could not possibly be justified on a Terry -type rationale. See Place, 462 U.S. at 709, 103 S.Ct. 2637 (ninety-minute length of detention alone precludes finding of reasonableness). Thus, we must examine whether the facts as known to Detective Martin at the airport constitute probable cause. We hold that they do. 57 Claimant asserts that probable cause did not exist until the canine alert, relying on the proposition that a large sum of money is not by itself sufficient to establish probable cause. Were the funds here currency and the only possible violation one of narcotics or narcotics-related money laundering, we might very well agree. See United States v. $121,100.00 in United States Currency, 999 F.2d 1503, 1506 (11th Cir.1993) (Absent some evidence connecting specifically to illegal drugs even a large sum of money, there is no reasonable basis for believing that the money is substantially linked to an illegal exchange of a controlled substance. As such, currency by itself is insufficient to establish probable cause.) (citation omitted). Like the district court, we find that at the time of the seizure there was probable cause with regard to a structuring violation. Relative to that violation, the fact that these were money orders, not currency, distinguishes this case from the ones cited by claimant. 58 Currency — that is to say, cash — is of course accrued by all types of legitimate businesses, often in small denominations, and though for a business to choose to keep (and transport) over half a million dollars of its proceeds in cash form would be, to say the least, foolhardy, it would not necessarily be indicative of criminality — foolishness not yet being a crime. The reason that transporting so much money as cash might be deemed folly, of course, is lack of security — cash being fully utilizable by anyone into whose possession it comes. That lack of security is why wiser persons might choose to convert their cash into more secure instruments which cannot be utilized by others if they become lost or stolen. 59 Money orders can be one of these more secure instruments, but as the district court correctly concluded, if one has half a million dollars worth of cash to convert into more secure monetary instruments, one could much more easily have obtained, say, a cashier's check for the entire amount — if the one who obtains them is not concerned about these reporting requirements or recordkeeping requirements. Tr. 13. Preferring to use money orders of such small denomination is not only more time-consuming but more expensive, in that there is some charge for each money order. For these reasons, therefore, money orders are quite different from cash, and we agree with the district court that the facts legitimately available to Detective Martin — a large sum of money orders, undesignated, unsigned, and in small denominations—gave rise to probable cause that the money orders were obtained for the purpose of evading currency transaction reporting requirements and were thus evidence of a structuring violation. This probable cause, in turn, gave Detective Martin the authority to seize the money orders pursuant to the plain view doctrine. There being no Fourth Amendment violation, the district court properly denied claimant's motion to suppress.