Roy Joseph Travis v. United States

Roy Joseph Travis appeals from a judgment of conviction, and sentence, for a violation of section 2(c) of the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act, 70 Stat. 570 (1956), 21 U.S.C. § 174 (1964).

On February 11, 1965, shortly before sunset, Travis, travelling alone, landed a rented Canadian-registered “Mooney” aircraft at the airport in Yuba City, California. He had the airplane’s gas tank filled, parked the aircraft “on the line,” locked it, and left for town. A few minutes before 9:00 o’clock that night, federal narcotic agents and custom agents arrived at the airport. They placed the plane under surveillance, and between that time and 7:00 o’clock the next morning obtained a search warrant.

No one entered the plane while it was under surveillance. When Travis returned to the airplane that morning, the search warrant was served upon him. Producing a key, Travis unlocked the aircraft. Almost a pound of heroin, out of sight under the control panel, was found by the searching agent. An indictment was returned against Travis. His pretrial motions for suppression of the evidence and for a bill of particulars disclosing the identity of the informant were denied. The package of…