Seiuli

MEMORANDUM **

Defendants Aileen Seiuli and Saresa Manu were arrested and searched after the Honolulu police raided the Paradise Lost Bar (the Bar). Defendants moved to suppress the evidence seized from their persons, arguing that the police lacked probable cause to arrest them. The district court denied their motion. Defendants then pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute in excess of five grams of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1), reserving their right to appeal the suppression ruling. We affirm.

The district court ruled that the police had probable cause to believe that Defendants constructively possessed the drugs and drug paraphernalia found on the table at which they had been sitting in the Bar. The term “constructive possession” reflects “the common sense notion that an individual may possess a controlled substance even though the substance is not on his person at the time of arrest.” United States v. Disla, 805 F.2d 1340, 1350 (9th Cir.1986).

Defendants were not arrested because of their “mere proximity” to eontra *727 band, United States v. Behanna, 814 F.2d 1318, 1320 (9th Cir.1987), nor to their “mere propinquity to others” suspected…