Opinion ID: 165698
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Storage Locker Tag

Text: 50 The district court noted, but did not rely on, one additional fact: that Mr. Santos's suitcase had on it a storage locker tag. At the suppression hearing Trooper Peech indicated that the tag suggested drug trafficking to him because, in his experience, drug distributors sometimes preserve their anonymity by placing drugs in storage lockers and then mailing the key to a courier. This inference is weakened by the length of time that had elapsed between the date on the tag and the date of the traffic stop. The storage locker tag was dated December 3; Mr. Santos's traffic stop occurred on January 13. It seems unlikely that drug couriers would allow over a month to elapse between putting the suitcase into storage and transporting it to its destination. The tag nonetheless reasonably contributed to Trooper Peech's suspicions.