Court Opinion

ID: 9462227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:35:29.843081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:57.856542
License: Public Domain

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur. I have no difficulty in finding probable cause for this search. The uncontroverted evidence, including the facts as stipulated by the parties, is that on the morning in question a tip was received from an informer, who had proved himself reliable, that “before too long” a blue-green Pontiac with California license number HGP 761, and containing marijuana, would enter the United States and proceed to a location in Calexico where the contraband would be “stashed.” Early that afternoon, within a matter of hours, a Pontiac matching the description precisely, entered from Mexico and proceeded to a residence in Calexico. The ensuing events add up to a classic border-area stashing operation. The driver and her passenger parked the car in front of the residence and then left by other conveyance. A man from the residence moved the Pontiac into the driveway and two men began working in the rear seat area, making several trips into the house during the next ten minutes. An hour or so later a man drove the Pontiac back into Mexico.
Before dawn the next morning a blue pickup that had been parked in front was moved to the rear of the house without the aid of headlights. Two individuals began carrying objects from the house and placing them on the rear bed of the pickup, and this was done without the aid of house lights. They appeared to cover the objects with a tarp or other covering. Soon thereafter two men drove the pickup away from the house, heading west. Agent Goff testified that the two men who loaded the pickup were the same two men who drove away in it. This is also testimony that the pickup was under constant surveillance either from ground vehicles or from an airplane that was working with the ground vehicles.
In United States v. Ortiz, 422 U.S. 891, 95 S.Ct. 2585, 2589, 45 L.Ed.2d 623, 629 (1975), dealing with searches at traffic checkpoints in the vicinity of the Mexican-American border, Justice Powell recognizes that “some of the factors” which can be relied on by officers in determining if they have probable cause to search a car are “the number of persons in a vehicle, the appearance and behavior of the driver and passengers, their inability to speak English, the responses they give to officers’ questions, the nature of the vehicle, and indications that it may be heavily loaded.” In addition, “the officers are entitled to draw reasonable inferences from these facts in light of their knowledge of the area and their prior experience with aliens and smugglers.”
In this case we have the accurate tip from an informant of proven reliability, followed by activities at the Calexico *1132residence that corroborated the informer’s information that the contraband would be “stashed” there. Add to this the “reasonable inferences ... in light of [the officers’] knowledge of the area and their prior experience with aliens and smugglers” and there is enough to constitute probable cause for the search.
Moreover, this court has consistently held that officers may stop to make inquiries if there is “founded suspicion” for the stop, and “founded suspicion” may be less than probable cause. United States v. Bugarin-Casas, 484 F.2d 853, 854 (9th Cir. 1973). As already discussed, I have no difficulty finding probable cause. But even if probable cause were lacking, there was founded suspicion that justified the stop. Furthermore, it was stipulated that Agent Coleman, who approached the pickup after the stop, saw what appeared to be marijuana debris in plain view in the driver’s compartment of the pickup. A search now being justified by probable cause, he lifted the coverings on the floor bed of the pickup and found the 180 pounds of marijuana. While the facts of the case suggest that the officers may have intended to search the pickup in any event, this fact, if true, would be irrelevant, as the search was supported by independent probable cause. United States v. Bugarin-Casas, supra, at 854, fn. 1.
The claim of insufficient evidence with respect to appellant Moreno-Buelna is without merit. The presumption of knowledge of the contraband which applies to the driver of a vehicle (in this case appellant Nava-Flores) does not apply to passengers such as appellant Moreno-Buelna. But there is enough in this record upon which the trier of fact could infer possession. Notably, there is the evidence that the two men who loaded the pickup were the same two men who drove away in it, and were the same two men who were in it when it was stopped and searched. See United States v. Hood, 493 F.2d 677 (9th Cir. 1974).