United States v. Roger Glen Grayson, United States of America v. John Scott MacGregor
Opinion
Opinion
Wright, J.
Grayson and MacGregor appeal their convictions for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute [ 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1)], importation of cocaine [ 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 (a), 960(a)(1)], and aiding and abetting [ 18 U.S.C. § 2 ]. They attack the reasonableness of the border search, the court’s failure to give the “two hypotheses” jury instruction, and the sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm.
FACTS
Appellants were arrested on March 16, 1978 at the Los Angeles International Airport for importing cocaine. They arrived on a flight from Panama and Guatemala, scheduled through to San Francisco. All passengers were required to disembark in Los Angeles to clear immigration and customs, prior to reboarding for the continuation flight.
MacGregor was the first passenger to arrive at the primary United States Customs station, where Customs Inspector Reimers was on duty. During the examination of MacGregor’s luggage, Reimers observed him to be cooperative, but in a hurry. Because MacGregor appeared bulky around the midriff, gave evasive answers about having been in Colombia, and had an unusually cooperative attitude, the inspector decided to make a secondary examination.