U.S. v. Loaiza-Marin

• Decision Date: 06 November 1987
• Docket Number: D,No. 87-3541,LOAIZA-MARI,87-3541
• Citation: 832 F.2d 867
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raulefendant-Appellant. Summary Calendar.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 867

832 F.2d 867

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raul LOAIZA-MARIN, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 87-3541

Summary Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 6, 1987.

Virginia L. Schlueter, Asst. Federal Public Defender, New Orleans, La. (Court-appointed).

John Volz, U.S. Atty., Lawrence Benson, Joe Giarrusso, Jr., Asst. U.S. Attys., New Orleans, La., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before GEE, GARWOOD and JONES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Loaiza-Marin, an alien convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, appeals complaining of the trial court's refusal to suppress the cocaine, 664 F.Supp. 1013. We affirm his conviction.

At the Border Patrol station where he was taken after being arrested for illegal entry, an agent searching his suitcase found a soft pillow with hard lumps inside. A corner of it was loosely sewn shut with thread which differed in color from that binding the remainder. When the agent opened the pillow seeking possible contraband or valuables, ¹ he discovered bags of cocaine. He turned Loaiza and his cocaine over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Loaiza contends to us that the trial judge improperly concluded that the Border Patrol agents found the cocaine pursuant to an inventory search. The search was not an inventory search, he asserts, because one of the Border Patrol agents testified that it was not and because the agents did not complete the proper forms for an inventory search.

The Supreme Court has held that "it is not 'unreasonable' for police, as part of the routine procedure incident to incarcerating an arrested person, to search any container or article in his possession in accordance with established inventory procedures." Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 648, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 2611, 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983). Examining all the items removed from the arrestee's person or possession and listing or inventorying them is a reasonable administrative procedure. Id. at 646, 103 S.Ct. at 2609. The reasonableness of an inventory search does not depend upon probable cause, and the inventory search constitutes a well-defined exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. Id. at 643, 103 S.Ct. at 2608; see also United States v. Young, 825 F.2d 60, 61 (5th Cir.1987). The policies underlying inventory procedures serve to protect the owner's property while in police custody, to insure against lost or vandalized property, and to guard the police from danger. Colorado v. Bertine, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 738, 741, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987).

The search of the pillow constituted a reasonable inventory search. The agent who conducted the search testified that the hard lumps and the different colored thread, together with the knowledge that aliens often hide their valuables, led him to believe that Loaiza may have cached valuables in the pillow. He further indicated that inventorying valuables constituted part of the Border Patrol's routine post-arrest administrative procedure. The purpose of searching for valuables comports with the policy stated above of protecting the detainee's property from theft or loss. The agent's uncontradicted testimony indicated that he was searching for valuables, and there was no evidence to indicate that the inventory search was a pretext for conducting an impermissible warrantless pursuit of criminal evidence. See Young, 825 F.2d at 61.

Other courts have upheld inventory searches in factually similar circumstances. In...