Opinion ID: 499444
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of motions to suppress the currency found in the Beneventos' luggage.

Text: 24 The Beneventos appeal from the district court's order which denied their motions to suppress the currency found in their luggage at Kennedy International Airport. See 649 F.Supp. at 1381-82. The Beneventos contend, first, that the customs agent's search of their luggage violated their fourth amendment rights because the search occurred without a warrant and without probable cause; and, second, that the search violated 31 U.S.C. Sec. 5317(b) because the customs agent did not have reasonable cause to believe they were carrying currency in their luggage at the time he conducted the search. 25 In its decision denying the suppression motions, the district court rejected both of the Beneventos' contentions. The district court concluded that the search did not violate the Beneventos' constitutional rights because it found that the search fell within the so-called border search exception to the fourth amendment. See 649 F.Supp. at 1382. Turning to defendants' section 5317 argument, the district court held that, even if the customs agent's search violated that section, the evidence seized would nevertheless be admissible because no exclusionary remedy is provided for in the statute. Id. at 1381-82. We agree with both of the district court's legal conclusions. 26 Although the district court did not conduct an evidentiary hearing, nor did it make factual findings, we have the benefit of the customs agent's affidavit filed in the district court, which sets forth the factual context in which the luggage search occurred. On June 3, 1985, while Customs Special Agent Joseph Henderson was on duty at the International Arrivals Building at Kennedy Airport, he was contacted by the SwissAir station manager. The station manager informed Henderson that one of his employees had recognized a passenger who had checked in for a flight to Geneva, Switzerland. The SwissAir employee remembered the passenger, who was later identified as Ernesto J. Benevento, as having accompanied a female passenger on a previous SwissAir flight to Geneva one month earlier, and, on that occasion, the female passenger's luggage had been stopped and searched for currency violations. On the basis of this information, Henderson proceeded to the SwissAir baggage loading area and searched the Beneventos' luggage for possible currency violations. In the luggage, Henderson found approximately $952,000 in cash for which the Beneventos had not filed the required outgoing currency declarations. Subsequent to the search, Henderson learned the specifics of the prior search involving Nobre. Thus, he discovered that, on May 2, 1985, customs agents had opened the luggage of Ms. Nobre as she prepared to board a SwissAir flight to Geneva, Switzerland, and, in her luggage, agents observed currency in excess of $200,000. On that prior occasion, Ernesto J. Benevento accompanied Nobre to the airport and checked her in for the flight. 27 At the outset, it is clear that Henderson's search of the luggage did not violate the Beneventos' constitutional rights. The facts set forth above establish that the search fell within the so-called border search exception to the fourth amendment, which allows government agents to conduct inspections at the border without a warrant and without probable cause. See United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 616-19, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 1978-80, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977). Here, Henderson searched the Beneventos' luggage at the airport as it was being prepared for loading onto the SwissAir flight to Geneva. Thus, although the search occurred as the Beneventos were departing the country, it nevertheless constituted a permissible border search and thus was not violative of the defendants' fourth amendment rights. See United States v. Ajlouny, 629 F.2d 830, 834-35 (2d Cir.1980) (border search exception applies to searches of persons departing country as well as to searches of persons entering the country), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1111, 101 S.Ct. 920, 66 L.Ed.2d 840 (1981); United States v. Swarovski, 592 F.2d 131, 133 (2d Cir.1979) (same). 28 Despite the absence of any constitutional provision prohibiting customs agents from conducting routine currency searches at the border, Congress has on three occasions enacted legislation that limited the scope of such searches. In 1970, Congress enacted Pub.L. No. 91-508, 84 Stat. 1114, which, inter alia, granted authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to apply to any court of competent jurisdiction for a warrant, based on probable cause, to search any person reasonably believed to be in the process of illegally transporting monetary instruments. Pub.L. No. 91-508, Sec. 235(a), 84 Stat. 1114, 1123-24 (1970). When Congress recodified Title 31 of the United States Code in 1982, it retained the probable cause and warrant requirement. See 31 U.S.C. Sec. 5317(a) (1982) (current version at 31 U.S.C.A. Sec. 5317(b) (West Supp.1987)). In 1984, however, Congress amended this statute to permit customs officers to stop and search, without a warrant, any person entering or departing from the United States with respect to whom the officer has reasonable cause to believe there is a monetary instrument being [illegally] transported. 31 U.S.C. Sec. 5317(b) (Supp.III 1985) (current version at 31 U.S.C.A. Sec. 5317(b) (West Supp.1987)) (section 5317(b)). Because the Beneventos' luggage was searched at a time when this last-mentioned statute was in effect, the search was lawful only if it was supported by reasonable cause. 1 29 The reasonable cause standard of section 5317(b) has been equated with reasonable suspicion. See, e.g., United States v. Hernandez-Salazar, 813 F.2d 1126, 1138 (11th Cir.1987); United States v. Turner, 639 F.Supp. 982, 985 n. 1 (E.D.N.Y.1986). Reasonable suspicion in turn, is a lesser standard than probable cause, but requires more than just an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch.'  New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 346, 105 S.Ct. 733, 746, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985). 30 Given the circumstances surrounding this case, it appears that Henderson's decision to search the Beneventos' luggage for currency was based on no more than an unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch.'  In his affidavit in opposition to the Beneventos' suppression motion, Henderson stated: 31 On June 3, 1985, ... I was on duty at ... John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, New York. At that time, I was contacted at my station by the Swissair station manager. In substance and among other things, that manager advised me that a Swissair employee had advised him that a passenger who had checked in to board Swissair flight 111 was familiar to that employee. Particularly, I was informed that the employee recognized Ernesto J. Benevento as an individual who, with another female individual, had checked baggage with Swissair on a recent occasion. On that prior occasion, the baggage had been the subject of an outbound currency search. 32 Subsequent to [the currency search], I learned that on or about May 2, 1985, Customs Service officers opened the luggage of Fatima dos Santos Nobre as she prepared to board Swissair flight 111 to Geneva, Switzerland. In that luggage they observed at least $200,000 in United States currency. I subsequently also learned that Ernesto J. Benevento had checked Nobre in at the Swissair desk on that date. 33 Joint Appendix at 184-85 (emphasis added). On the basis of the foregoing affidavit, it does not appear that the currency search was conducted in accordance with the customs agent's reasonable suspicion. The evidence suggests that Henderson relied solely on the hearsay statement of the Swissair manager that, on some prior occasion, Ernesto J. Benevento had checked some luggage that had been subjected to a currency search; significantly, there is no evidence that Henderson was aware of the result of the previous search of Nobre's luggage. To conclude that Henderson had reasonable suspicion in this context would suggest that the mere fact that a person (or his companion) has been subjected to a prior search is sufficient to cast a shadow of suspicion over that person for some indeterminate period of time--regardless of the fact that the previous search may have turned up no evidence of criminal activity. In the absence of any evidence that Henderson was aware of the result of the previous search, we conclude that the currency search was not supported by reasonable suspicion. 34 We nevertheless conclude that the district court properly denied the Beneventos' suppression motions. As the district court reasoned, there is nothing in the legislative history of section 5317(b) indicating that Congress intended an exclusionary remedy for violations of the statute. Instead, the fact that the exclusionary rule is the remedy for Fourth Amendment violations carries no force in this instance, because the amendment does not apply at all to routine border searches. See 649 F.Supp. at 1382. Moreover, Congress has expressly provided for the exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of other federal statutes. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2518(10)(a) (providing an exclusionary remedy for evidence obtained in violation of the federal wiretapping statute); 50 U.S.C. Sec. 1806(e)-(g) (providing an exclusionary remedy for illegal military wiretaps). In addition, as the district court noted, in passing section 5317(b) Congress intended to bestow greater powers on federal agents to prevent drug traffickers from engaging in currency smuggling. Consequently, in the absence of any evidence of an intent to the contrary, the courts should not weaken the manifest purpose of the statute. 649 F.Supp. at 1382. Finally, we note that suppression may not be the only means of deterring unlawful currency searches; conceivably, the victims of the unlawful search may have an implied cause of action against the violating officer. United States v. Chemaly, 741 F.2d 1346, 1358-59 (11th Cir.1984) (Tjoflat, J., dissenting), reinstated, 764 F.2d 747 (1985) (en banc). Accordingly, we conclude that the district court properly denied the Beneventos' motions to suppress the currency evidence. 35