United States v. Guadalupe Soto-Camacho

This appeal requires us to decide the constitutionality of a stop and detention at a temporary immigration checkpoint that is open for up to 10 days each month and is put into operation in part based on intelligence about the movement of drugs across the border.

Guadalupe Soto-Camacho was stopped at the Jacumba Checkpoint, two miles north of the United States-Mexiean border on the westbound lane of Interstate 8 near Jacum-ba, California. He was referred to the secondary inspection site because he couldn’t answer questions about his citizenship and traffic was backing up. Soto consented to a search of the trunk. As Border Patrol agents thought that he was trying to divert attention away from the front, they continued the consensual search inside the vehicle and under the hood. They found no illegal aliens, but did find 35 kilograms of cocaine.

Soto appeals his conviction following a conditional guilty plea to being an accessory after the fact to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 3 . He challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress, which he argues should have been granted because the entire…