Richard Donald Costello v. United States

Appellant Costello was allegedly engaged in the narcotics “racket” in Alaska. He was arrested, tried before a jury and found guilty. He now challenges the validity of the judgment of conviction on the ground that he was subjected to an illegal search and seizure during which two packets of marijuana cigarettes were seized and later introduced into evidence. One of the packages was taken from his person at the time of his arrest and the other was thrown by appellant to the floor of his small public office during the process of the arrest.

The two main contentions with which we are presently concerned are: First, that the search during which the marijuana was discovered was not incident to a lawful arrest on a valid warrant; second, that the officers at the time the arrest was made did not have probable cause to believe that appellant was in possession of marijuana, and that the court in testing that question on the motion to suppress erred in refusing, after appellant requested it, to require the government to disclose the name of an alleged informant on whose “tip” the probable cause was said to be based.

This ease is, in essential factual respects, very similar to the case of…