Opinion ID: 628059
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: warrantless search of airplane

Text: 46 Adams next complains that the evidence discovered in the Piper aircraft after it landed with he and Runkel aboard should have been suppressed because it was the product of an illegal warrantless search. The Government's position is that no warrant is necessary for the border search of an aircraft. The district court's findings of fact about this issue are not to be overturned unless clearly erroneous, but the application of law to those facts is reviewed de novo. United States v. Nash, 910 F.2d 749, 752 (11th Cir.1990). 47 It is clear that the search was a valid border search, one for which a warrant was not required. The fact that one is in the process of crossing an international boundary provides sufficient reason in itself to permit a search for aliens or contraband, without the presence of any other circumstance that would normally have to attend the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Moreno, 778 F.2d 719, 721 (11th Cir.1985) (quoting United States v. McDaniel, 463 F.2d 129, 132 (5th Cir.1972)). Such a search is reasonable for Fourth Amendment purposes simply because a border has been crossed. The mere fact that in this case the search did not technically occur at the border is irrelevant; the point where [the defendant] ultimately landed his aircraft is construed as the functional equivalent of the border. United States v. Hewitt, 724 F.2d 117, 119 (11th Cir.1984); see also United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 616-19, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 1978-80, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977). 48 We reject Adams' argument that the search could not have been a border search because he was in a U.S. registered airplane having taken off from an airstrip in the United States and never having landed in a foreign country. In United States v. Haley, 743 F.2d 862, 865 (11th Cir.1984), we held that there is no requirement that the Government prove that a flight originated in a foreign land for a border search to be valid. Customs agents tracked the Adams and Runkel plane well out of American airspace and tracked it coming back into American airspace. In United States v. Stone, 659 F.2d 569, 573 (5th Cir. Unit B Oct. 1981), we held that the mere sighting of an airplane passing into United States airspace satisfied the requirements of a border crossing for search and seizure purposes. Id. See also United States v. Garcia, 672 F.2d 1349, 1357 (11th Cir.1982). Where an aircraft has crossed a United States border, the Government need not prove at trial that the flight originated in a foreign land, and, indeed, a flight need not in fact have originated in a foreign land, for a border search of the aircraft to be upheld. All that is required is that the information, including the fact of the actual border crossing, possessed by the Customs agents prior to the search of [the defendant's] airplane was sufficient to reasonably support an inference that there was a substantial likelihood that the airplane had come from a foreign location. Haley, 743 F.2d at 866. 49 The Customs agents in this case were following up on information from a reliable informant; they had tracked the plane in the direction of Belize, a country the informant said was the destination and one known for being a source of narcotics. Adams and Runkel had been gone between nine and ten hours before the agents observed them returning to United States airspace. This interval of time is sufficient for the plane to have reached a foreign country, landed, loaded whatever it was seeking, and taken off again. The information possessed by the Customs agents amply supported an inference that the plane had come from a foreign land. Therefore, the search of the Piper aircraft involved in this case was a valid border search and no warrant was required.