Lopez

Must evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant be suppressed where the affiant officer essentially bases his opinion as to the reliability of the informant on a “track record” supplied by other officers? No.

I

In this narcotics prosecution, Huntington Beach Officer Carl Vidano presented an affidavit in support of a search warrant to a magistrate on November 19, 1983, seeking to search an individual and residence for cocaine. In the affidavit Vidano described himself as a sergeant who has worked in narcotics enforcement for a total of 10 years and has “participated in hundreds of arrests of persons for violations of controlled substance laws and . . . testified as an expert in this field ... on over 75 occasions.”

Vidano stated he was contacted by a confidential reliable informant the same day who told him a male Colombian living in Yorba Linda was a “major dealer in cocaine.” The suspect was identified as Julian Jaramillo, also known as Danny Lopez. Jaramillo and his girlfriend Lucy recently moved to Yorba Linda from Long Beach; and within the past six days the informant had observed a large clear plastic bag of the freezer variety containing high quality Colombian…