Barona

Opinion by Chief Judge WALLACE; Concurrence by Judge TANNER; Dissent by Judge REINHARDT.

Following extensive investigation, including wiretaps in foreign countries, the appellants were indicted and convicted of drug-related crimes. The district court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231 . We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I

The issues we discuss arose in the context of a criminal prosecution of six individuals for an ongoing conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Mario Ernesto Villabona-Alvarado (Villabo-na) and Brian Bennett organized and supervised the operation. Cocaine from Colombia entered the United States through a source named “Oscar.” The cocaine was then delivered by Maria Barona and Luz Janneth Martinez to Michael McCarver and Michael Harris for further distribution.

Several events led to the identification of this conspiracy and its participants. Between 1985 and 1987, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a money-laundering investigation code-named “Operation Pisces.” The result of this investigation…

dissenting.

At a time when other branches of our government are more and more willing to eliminate the constitutional protections provided by the Fourth Amendment, courts should be especially zealous in their efforts to protect individuals from unlawful searches and seizures. See Murdock v. Stout, 54 F.3d *1099 1437, 1444 (Noonan, J., dissenting). This precious constitutional guarantee has increasingly come under attack in recent years. Three months ago, the House of Representatives voted 303 to 121 to reject an amendment to the Crime Bill that consisted solely of the precise language of the Fourth Amendment. 1 Certain members of the legal academy are also joining the hue and cry to eliminate the exclusionary rule and to eviscerate the warrant requirement, see Akhil R. Amar, “Fourth Amendment First Principles,” 107 Harv.L.Rev. 757 (1994), protections that its members once fought to establish and that are so necessary to the effective operation of the Fourth Amendment. It is precisely in times like these — when the constitutional rights of individuals are most threatened — that the courts should be vigilant in protecting them.

Instead, this court once again refuses to stand fast…

concurring.

I concur in the opinion filed today. I write separately, however, to explicitly reject Judge Reinhardt’s inference that the makeup of the panel affected the outcome of this case in any way other than in the normal course of the decision-making process that goes into every case heard before this court. Dissent at 1105 (“panel composition, not persuasive legal analysis, has determined the result in this case”). Nothing could be further from the truth.