United States v. Kenneth Paul Johnson

A jury found appellant guilty of conspiring to import heroin and conspiring to possess it with intent to distribute. He argues on appeal that the trial judge erred in admitting in evidence a quantity of heroin and an altered automobile gasoline tank, both of which were seized in warrantless searches. We affirm.

FACTS:

On December 15, 1975, agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested appellant and a co-conspirator, Bowen, as they sat in a 1975 Cadillac in a parking lot in Arizona. Bowen had been driving the Cadillac and Johnson had been driving a 1969 Chevrolet, parked nearby.

After the two were arrested, DEA agents searched both cars and found approximately five kilograms of heroin in a tennis bag and suitcase in the Cadillac’s trunk. Appellant’s driver’s license was in a pair of trousers in the suitcase. An initial inventory search of the Chevrolet produced no drugs.

The vehicles were seized for forfeiture, 21 U.S.C. § 881 and 49 U.S.C. §§ 781 and 782, and removed to a government facility for safekeeping.

Bowen and Johnson were convicted of possession of heroin with intent to distribute and this court upheld the legality of their arrests and the initial…