United States v. Alfonso Sierra-Hernandez

The issues raised on this appeal concern the legality of a stop and the subsequent search of appellant’s truck. The search uncovered fifty-seven pounds of marijuana concealed under the hood, and appellant was convicted on one count of possession, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1), and one count of importation, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 & 960. Appellant challenges the admissibility of the evidence obtained as a result of the search. The facts of the case, while simple, present one point that seems not to have arisen precisely in our many previous discussions of the requirements imposed on an officer who stops someone for questioning, and that is the weight an officer may place on a tip given in person by an unidentified informant.

United States border patrol agent Thomas was on duty at mid-day June 15, 1977, checking the citizenship of workers in a field two hundred yards north of the border between the United States and Mexico. While agent Thomas was thus engaged,, a man, described in the record only as wearing farmer’s overalls and a baseball cap and driving a late-model brown Mercedes Benz, approached him. The man pointed to a black pickup truck proceeding on a road…