United States v. Kenneth Wayne Cleaver

Kenneth Wayne Cleaver appeals from his conviction on charges of concealing and facilitating the transportation of marijuana in violation of section 106 of the Narcotic Control Act of 1956 (Act), 70 Stat. 570 , 21 U.S.C. § 176a (1964), and of importing benzedrine tablets in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 545 (1964).

Defendant’s only contention on this appeal is that' the marijuana and benzedrine tablets were seized as a result of an unlawful search of an automobile in which he was riding, and that this evidence should therefore not have been received at the trial.

The relevant facts are not in dispute. On the night of July 12, 1967, Everett H. Turner, a Customs Port Investigator at Nogales, Arizona, received a telephone call at his home from Customs Inspector Larson, who was stationed at the Grand Avenue, Nogales, Port of Entry. Larson reported that he had received a telephone call from an informer in No-gales, Mexico. Turner recognized the name as that of an informer who had been in contact with Customs agents about twenty or twenty-five times the previous year, and whose information had proved to be accurate about sixty percent of the time.

Larson repeated to Turner the informer’s…