United States v. Reyes

• Decision Date: 29 July 2020
• Docket Number: CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 19-10030-DPW
• Citation: 475 F.Supp.3d 27
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, v. Arnulfo REYES REYES, and Cynthia Alvarez Manzanilla, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

475 F.Supp.3d 27

UNITED STATES of America,

v.Arnulfo REYES REYES, and Cynthia Alvarez Manzanilla, Defendants.

CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 19-10030-DPW

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

Filed July 29, 2020

Katherine H. Ferguson, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, for United States of America.

Julie-Ann Olson, Federal Public Defender Office District of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOUGLAS P. WOODLOCK, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Defendants, Arnulfo Reyes Reyes and Cynthia Alvarez Manzanilla are residents of Arizona charged with two counts of violation of federal criminal law in connection with alleged cross-country transport of fentanyl for purposes of distribution. The pending motions to suppress before me concern two different occasions during which either Defendants themselves and/or Mr. Reyes Reyes's car were stopped by law enforcement agents while they were on cross-country journeys.

In February 2018, Defendants themselves were stopped by a deputy sheriff while driving a rental car in Phelps County, Missouri. They were interviewed during the stop and agreed to follow the officer to the Sheriff's Department for a further search of Mr. Reyes Reyes's rental vehicle. There, $45,600 was found in the rental car by law enforcement agents, and Defendants made statements that implicated themselves in related criminal activity.

The next month, Defendants put Mr. Reyes Reyes's car on a car carrier to be driven across the country to Massachusetts, where they would pick it up. The car carrier was stopped en route, in Carson County, Texas, and the carrier driver consented to a further search of the car. Fentanyl wrapped in cellophane was discovered in the car by law enforcement agents.

Defendants contend that law enforcement officials violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments in the various searches, seizures, and inquiries of Defendants in Missouri and Texas. After review of the totality of the circumstances, as disclosed by the evidence of record, I find that law enforcement officers acted reasonably, that the stops and seizures of the vehicles were justified at their inception by no less than reasonable suspicion of motor vehicle violations, that the ensuing investigations were justifiably expanded to include searches of the vehicles and their contents, and that the inquiries of Defendants generating inculpatory responses were not unconstitutional. Accordingly, I will deny Defendants’ motions to suppress the evidence developed by law enforcement agents as a result of the vehicle stops.

IBACKGROUND

When a court makes a determination regarding a motion to suppress, "[a] hearing is required only if the movant makes a sufficient threshold showing that material facts are in doubt or dispute, and that such facts cannot reliably be resolved on a paper record." United States v. Jimenez , 419 F.3d 34, 42 (1st Cir. 2005) (quoting United States v. Staula , 80 F.3d 596, 603 (1st Cir. 1996) ).

Nothing in the submissions of record suggests any dispute about the material facts¹ on which I will make a determination regarding the pending motions to suppress. Especially given the unique challenges posed by COVID-19 and the public health concerns associated with an in-court evidentiary hearing, it is prudent and in the interest of justice to avoid the delay that would be entailed by conducting an otherwise unnecessary, if virtual, evidentiary hearing when conduct of such a hearing is not called for. Accordingly, I make my determinations based on the papers before me and the arguments of counsel at a non-evidentiary hearing.

The record evidence provides the following undisputed facts.

A. Factual Background

1. The February 2018 Encounter with Law Enforcement in Phelps County, Missouri

On February 22, 2018, Defendants, while driving a rented 2017 Ford Expedition with Kentucky license plates in Missouri, were pulled over by officers associated with the Phelps County Sheriff's Department, Officers Carmelo Crivello² and George Arnold. Mr. Reyes Reyes was driving, his wife, Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla, was in the passenger seat, and his daughter and dog were in the backseat. It was a foggy day and drizzling, but Mr. Reyes Reyes was driving without the use of his headlights. That failure provided a reason for Officer Crivello to stop the car.

While conducting routine questioning, checking the rental contract, explaining the traffic violation, and running Defendants’ licenses,³ Officer Crivello asked about their trip itinerary. At some point, after competing with the aggressively barking dog to be heard, Officer Crivello asked Mr. Reyes Reyes to accompany him to his squad car, where he questioned him further.

Thereafter, Officer Crivello went back and forth between his squad car and the rental car as he talked with each Defendant individually.⁴ In the course of those conversations, it became apparent Defendants’ stories did not align regarding various aspects of their trip. They both said they had come from Columbus, Ohio, but other basic details were inconsistent. For example, Mr. Reyes Reyes said they did not stay in a hotel, but Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla said they did so for one night. Mr. Reyes Reyes said that his sister-in-law, who he could not name, lived in Ohio, but Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla said she did not have a sister who lived there.

As a result of the discrepancies, Officer Crivello asked further questions and at some point, Mr. Reyes Reyes agreed to allow him to search the car.⁵ Officer Crivello asked Defendants to follow him to the Sheriff's Department so that he could more fully conduct the search. They did so, driving the rental car behind him to the station.

At the station, Defendants were placed in a waiting room or cafeteria, where they sat with one or two other officers while the car was searched. Officers found large sums of U.S. currency, and Officer Crivello confronted Mr. Reyes Reyes with their discovery, asking him to "be honest." Mr. Reyes Reyes put his head down on the table and said he would show Officer Crivello where the rest of the money was hidden, which he then did. A total of $45,600 was recovered and a K-9 reacted positively to presence of narcotics associated with the money. In addition, two phones were found. After a search of the phones, to which Mr. Reyes Reyes consented, Officer Crivello found there were only two numbers on the instruments. Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla and Mr. Reyes Reyes confirmed that their stories about the trip to Ohio had been false and that the true purpose had been to transport the currency. Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla, however, stated only that she understood the purpose of the trip to be picking "something" up in Ohio, which she may not have known was currency. Mr. Reyes Reyes, on the other hand, explained all of the details regarding the currency pick-up to Officer Crivello and said he suspected the money came from illegal narcotics. Defendants were not arrested, and they were permitted to leave at the conclusion of this search and the associated questioning. The currency was seized.

2. The March 2018 Search and Seizure in Carson County, Texas

Approximately one month later, a "Cynthia Alvarez"⁶ signed a bill of lading to transport a 2012 Honda Accord that Mr. Reyes Reyes co-owned (with a third party, Nereyda Diaz Gutierrez, not either Ms. "Alvarez," or Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla) on a car carrier to be transported from their home in Arizona to Andover, MA, where a person named "Arnulfo" (Mr. Reyes Reyes's first name) was to pick it up. While Mr. Reyes Reyes was present, Ms. "Alvarez" signed the bill of lading. The driver, Leonard Juravlea, was given the keys; he was permitted by the contract of carriage to drive the car on and off the carrier and turn off the alarm if it sounded.

Observing the carrier en route in Carson County, Texas, Trooper Robert Bowden noticed that its trailer had an obscured license plate. This observation led Trooper Bowden to stop the carrier. He inspected the carrier-driver's license and registration, as well as the bills of lading for the cars on the carrier. He asked about various cars on the carrier, including the 2012 Honda Accord. The Honda Accord initially caught his attention, he said, because it had recently been cleaned. He inquired further of Mr. Juravlea about the circumstances of the transport and the people involved.

Trooper Bowden's suspicions grew after running the license for Mr. Reyes Reyes when he discovered he had been stopped in a rental car in Carson County a month earlier.⁷ That, along with what he understood to be a known drug route between Phoenix, Arizona and Andover, Massachusetts (as a suburb of Boston),⁸ a hotel as the delivery location, the recent cleaning of the car, and the fact that the car had been recently bought and paid for without a lien, caused Trooper Bowden to suspect criminal activity.

Trooper Bowden requested permission from Mr. Juravlea to search the car, and Mr. Juravlea agreed. Once he began searching, Trooper Bowden noticed a raised floorboard and seat bolts that had been tampered with. This turned out, upon inspection, to be a false floor in the right rear passenger side. Thereafter, Trooper Bowden asked Mr. Juravlea to bring the car to a police station in Panhandle, Texas; Mr. Juravlea complied. Upon a further search at the station, police found approximately five kilograms of what turned out to be fentanyl wrapped in cellophane in the hidden compartment.

DEA agents were notified, and they came to remove the drugs. They replaced the drugs with a package resembling narcotics and let the car continue on its way, by carrier, so they could observe who picked it up. After the car was delivered in Methuen, Massachusetts, DEA agents surveilled Mr. Reyes Reyes and Ms. Alvarez Manzanilla. The next day, they stopped Defendants and received Mr. Reyes Reyes's consent to search the car. The false narcotics package was not found in the hidden compartment, but two screwdrivers...