United States v. Kamyar Taghizadeh

The Government appeals a district court order suppressing 1487 grams of opium seized by customs officials from a package mailed in Turkey to a post office box in the United States. A panel of this court in an opinion filed March 28, 1994, slip op. 2905, reversed the district court. We have taken the case en banc to reconsider the rationale for the panel’s decision. We now withdraw the opinion and substitute this opinion. We too reverse the district court.

I.

Customs officials took custody of a package arriving from Turkey at the Los Angeles International Airport. The package was for “Ken Mondal” and was addressed to a post office box in Irvine, California. They opened the package and found 75 sticks of opium, each about six inches long. Customs agents then resealed the package, delivered it to the Irvine post office, and caused a Notice of Delivery to be placed in Taghizadeh’s post office box. When Kamyar Taghizadeh picked up the package, law enforcement officials followed him home. Taghizadeh let them come inside to discuss the package, waived his Miranda rights, and consented to a search of his home.

To explain his possession of the package addressed to Ken Mondal, Taghizadeh…