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N.D.Ga.: Defendant's possession at Customs and prior drug arrest justified strip search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

At ATL customs, defendant was sent for a secondary search, and his luggage was x-rayed and searched, and officers found meth in a picture frame. Defendant had a prior arrest for drugs, and he was strip searched and it was reasonable on this record. United States v. Laureano-Castellon, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22861 (N.D. Ga. March 7, 2011), R&R 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141849 (N.D.Ga. December 23, 2010): CBP Chief Pugh also testified that in his experience working for CBP, when narcotics were found in luggage, it was not unusual to find drugs on the body of the person who possessed the luggage in which the narcotics had been found. Therefore, Magistrate Judge Hagy did not clearly err in concluding that the CBP officers had the requisite reasonable suspicion and particularized evidence to justify a limited strip search of that part of Defendant's body that could not adequately be searched by a pat down; the partial strip search of Defendant did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 10, 2011 (boomark / email).