United States v. Raquel Valencia-Vargas

962 F.2d 15 NOTICE: Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3 provides that dispositions other than opinions or orders designated for publication are not precedential and should not be cited except when relevant under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, or collateral estoppel. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raquel VALENCIA-VARGAS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 91-50216. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted April 7, 1992. Decided May 7, 1992. Before BOOCHEVER, WILLIAM A. NORRIS and NOONAN, Circuit Judges. 1 MEMORANDUM * 2 U.S. Customs officials stopped Carrillo-Hernandez and Valencia-Vargas at the San Ysidro border checkpoint as they were leaving the United States for Mexico. Agent Unzuneta, a native speaker of Spanish, asked the two defendants, both native speakers of Spanish, whether they were "carrying money in excess of ten thousand dollars." The question was in Spanish: Agent Unzuneta used "dinero" for "money" and "dolares" for "dollars." Both defendants responded in the negative. 3 Defendants were referred to the secondary inspection. An inspector asked Hernandez to hand over his wallet. The inspector noticed some dollar bills in the…