Court Opinion

ID: 9475721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:36:30.655434+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:53.691903
License: Public Domain

WIGGINS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
If the present opinion becomes the law of this circuit, I conclude that many, and perhaps all, Terry stops that rely upon drug courier profile characteristics may fail on constitutional grounds. Because I believe such an unfortunate result is not mandated by the law, I respectfully dissent.
Under a limited exception to the general fourth amendment rule that seizure of a person requires probable cause to arrest, an agent may justifiably detain a person if the agent is aware of specific and articulable facts creating a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed or is about to commit a crime. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-80, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Florida v. Boyer, 460 U.S. 491, 498, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). One important law enforcement tool developed by the Drug Enforcement Administration to aid in the detection of drug traffickers is the so-called “drug courier profile”. The profile involves a number of characteristics, all of which, both singly and collectively, are in themselves lawful. Because conformance with some aspects of the profile could “describe a very large category of presumably innocent travelers, who would be subject to virtually random seizures,” Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 441, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 2754, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980), the particular facts in each case must support a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before a Terry stop is justified, id.
In,this case, the question is whether the agents possessed reasonable and articulable suspicion that Sokolow was engaged in narcotics trafficking. First, the evidence discloses that Sokolow paid $2100 for his tickets from a stack of twenty dollar bills approximately double that amount. Although the question is close, I agree with the court that standing alone this evidence is not enough to support a valid Terry stop. However, such activity is sufficiently suspicious that the addition of few other relatively anomalous characteristics could support a founded suspicion of illegal activity. Innocent persons do not characteristically carry thousands of dollars in twenty dollar bills on their persons, and narcotics agents would be unlikely to ensnare a “large category of presumably innocent” persons, Reid, 448 U.S. at 441, 100 S.Ct. at 2754, if this characteristic were accorded substantial weight. I do not understand the court’s contention that carrying such a wad of bills is not evidence of “ongoing” criminal activity, while “appearing nervous, or taking evasive action” is such evidence. People may be nervous for a variety of reasons, one of which is that they are engaged in illegal activity. People may also carry large amounts of cash for a variety of reasons, for example, to conceal illicit travel patterns, or to buy drugs.
Despite the majority’s assertion, the agents did not rely alone on the cash payment to the airline. They also traced Sokolow’s travel pattern. He flew from Honolulu to Miami, a known drug source city, on July 22, and returned on July 25, a very short time when one considers it takes a minimum of ten hours to travel each way. He carried only carry-on luggage. These relatively anomalous characteristics serve to enhance the suspicious circumstances of the large cash purchase of the tickets. In United States v. Erwin, 803 F.2d 1505, 1511 (9th Cir.1986), this court concluded that arrival from a drug source city after a one day stay with only carry-on luggage required further particularized evidence to establish founded suspicion. The Erwin court concluded that defendant’s nervous behaviour, circuitous route through the airport and possible effort to conceal the truth fulfilled the requirement of particularized evidence. I submit that this defendant’s *1373payment of his airline ticket with thousands of dollars in twenty dollar bills coupled with his general travel pattern and behavior are more objectively suspicious than the facts on which the Erwin court relied.1
The majority has decided there was not reasonable suspicion for a Terry stop by looking at each evidentiary factor discretely. We should view the whole mosaic rather than each tile. United States v. Ramirez-Cifuentes, 682 F.2d 337, 342 (2nd Cir.1982). Defendant’s conduct established a reasonable suspicion of narcotics trafficking sufficient to warrant a valid investigative stop.

. The Erwin court relied heavily on defendant’s use of an allegedly circuitous route through the airport to distinguish itself from Reid where defendant’s arrival in the early morning from a drug source city without checked luggage was held to be too generalized to constitutionally warrant a Terry stop. I dissented in Erwin because I disagreed with the majority that a circuitous route and possibly implausible explanation were sufficient facts to distinguish Erwin from Reid, and because I believed the record did not support the court’s conclusion that, the defendant was “nervous” before he was detained. I take the opposite view here because I believe the agents’ suspicions were reasonably backed by specific facts that would not apply wholesale to innocent persons. Erwin, 803 F.2d at 1511-13 (Wiggins, J., dissenting).