Opinion ID: 386112
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The entry into the garage

Text: 7 Agents observed Hackett and Turner unloading the cocaine crate into Hackett's garage. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes later, the transmitter began emitting the fast signal indicating the drug compartment had been opened; after 10 to 15 seconds the transmitter went dead. In less than 2 minutes, agents were outside Hackett's garage. The door was down but slightly ajar. The agents identified themselves, demanded entry, and upon hearing no response entered the garage and encountered the scene described above. 8 When Hackett and Turner opened the bottom of the crate to enter the drug compartment and discovered the transmitter, they realized that they were under surveillance and in imminent danger of arrest. Immediate action was necessary to prevent their escape and destruction of evidence. Hackett and Turner had in fact managed temporarily to escape and the transmitter and the contents of the drug compartment were permanently disposed of by the time the agents entered the garage only a few minutes later. Thus, exigent circumstances existed at the time of the agents' entry into the garage. See United States v. McLaughlin, 525 F.2d 517, 521 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 427 U.S. 904, 96 S.Ct. 3190, 49 L.Ed.2d 1198 (1976); United States v. Bustamante-Gamez, 488 F.2d 4, 8-9 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 970, 94 S.Ct. 1993, 40 L.Ed.2d 559 (1974). 9