United States v. Gayne Frederic Sayer

' Appellant appeals from a judgment of conviction for violating 21 U.S.C. § 952 (a), importation of narcotics. He challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence found on his person by United States Customs agents shortly after Appellant disembarked from a non-stop flight from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, California. We find that the search in Los Angeles was a valid border search under Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266 , 93 S.Ct. 2535 , 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1972); accordingly, we affirm.

As Appellant boarded the non-stop flight in Vancouver, he was briefly interrogated by a United States Customs inspector. Appellant’s answers to routine questioning and nervous demeanor raised the suspicion of the Customs agent. Lacking authority to conduct a secondary inspection within Canada, the agent communicated the pertinent information about Appellant to the Customs officials in Los Angeles and requested that they conduct a secondary examination of Appellant when he disembarked. The Customs officials watched Appellant disembark from the plane, observed him speak briefly with one other person and then approached him to conduct a secondary examination.…