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D.Kan.: Defendant parking a rented airplane in an FBO's hanger for the night had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the hanger; he also abandoned his rented house

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant flew into Liberal, KS from Las Cruces, NM without a flight plan with a plane rented in CT. The FAA was mildly suspicious of the flight, since a plane with cocaine had come in six months earlier. The pilot left the plane with the FBO's aircraft service and asked that it be put in a hanger for the night. He paid for the hanger rental in cash, which was unusual. The police were called and came and a dog sniff was done on the plane, with the dog alerting. The police considered calling a locksmith but the hanger operator had a bucket of loose keys, and one opened the plane. Inside was a locked suitcase which was opened, containing about 28 kilos of cocaine. The government showed that the dog was well-trained, and there were no true false alerts, and the defendant did not rebut it...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).