Opinion ID: 1452969
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Second Factor The Officers Must be Legally Present

Text: Officer Fowler of the San Antonio Police Department obtained a state warrant to search Garcia's residence. Pursuant to Officer Fowler's invitation, three members of the DEA task force accompanied the San Antonio officers in executing the search. Garcia argues that the federal agents improperly tagged along with the local officers in executing the state search warrant, and thus their presence at the search was unlawful. Garcia specifically contends that this case is controlled by our decision in United States v. Sanchez, 509 F.2d 886, 889-90 (6th Cir.1975). We read Sanchez differently and find it inapplicable to the facts before us. In Sanchez, a local police officer with a warrant to search for narcotics learned that there were explosives at the residence. The local officer contacted an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent to assist in the search, but the ATF agent did not obtain a separate warrant to search for explosives. The court held that the ATF agent was not legally present at the scene of the search, reasoning that the narcotics warrant could not be used to validate the entrance of a federal officer having both probable cause and the opportunity to obtain a separate warrant to search for different items of property. Id. at 889. This holding suggests that a federal agent may not assist in the execution of a state search warrant where: (1) the federal officer had probable cause to obtain a separate warrant; (2) the federal officer had an opportunity but failed to obtain a separate warrant; and (3) the federal officer was searching for items different from those authorized by the state search warrant. Subsequent Sixth Circuit tag-along cases confirm our reading of Sanchez. Some of these cases emphasize the first two conditions  that a federal officer must have probable cause and an opportunity to obtain a separate search warrant. In United States v. Hare, 589 F.2d 1291, 1297 (6th Cir.1979), while further construing the Sanchez decision, we noted that [t]he existence of probable cause before the search transformed the legitimate participation of trained officers . . . into an inexcusable attempt to evade the warrant requirement. Id. (emphasis added). Later, in United States v. Bonds, 12 F.3d 540, 571 (6th Cir.1993), we cited Sanchez for the proposition that a federal agent may `tag along' on a state search without tainting evidence of federal crimes uncovered in the process if he has no probable cause to search which would allow him to obtain a separate federal warrant. Id. (emphasis added); see also McLevain, 310 F.3d at 440. Other cases confirm the third condition  that the federal officers must be searching for items different from those authorized by the state search warrant. For instance in United States v. Ford, 184 F.3d 566, 578-79 (6th Cir.1999), we acknowledged that  Sanchez does not prohibit federal officers from being present during execution of a state warrant, . . . but only prevents officers from using a warrant describing one kind of evidence as a pretext for searching for evidence outside the warrant. Id. (emphasis added). Similarly, the Sanchez decision itself emphasized the third condition by distinguishing the Eighth Circuit's decision in United States v. Carwell, 491 F.2d 1334 (8th Cir.1974), on the basis that  Carwell did not involve a simultaneous search for different articles by local and federal authorities. Sanchez, 509 F.2d at 890 (emphasis added). In light of our circuit's precedent, we conclude that evidence of a federal crime seized by a federal officer assisting in a search pursuant to a state warrant will be tainted only if all three Sanchez conditions are present. The DEA agents' assistance during the search of Garcia's residence was not unlawful because the third Sanchez condition was not present: the DEA agents were searching for drugs, the same evidence authorized in the state search warrant. Garcia contends that the third condition is satisfied because the federal agents not only sought narcotics but also hoped to discover documents to assist in the federal prosecution. This argument is insufficient to bring this case within the purview of Sanchez. Even if the DEA agents were interested in finding documents, they were ultimately searching for drugs in order to bring federal drug-trafficking charges against Garcia. This circumstance, in which DEA agents joined state officers to search for drugs and drug-related evidence pursuant to a state warrant to search for drugs, contrasts starkly with the Sanchez case, in which an ATF agent explicitly looking for explosives assisted state officers in executing a warrant to search for narcotics. Because the DEA agents sought drugs and drug-related documents pursuant to a state search warrant for cocaine, we find that the federal agents were legally present during the search of Garcia's residence.