United States v. Jesus Dario Gonzalez, AKA Adrian Magdaleno, AKA Jesse Gonzalez

Does the Fourth Amendment protect those who wish to hide in plain sight? Under the circumstances presented in this appeal, we conclude it does not and affirm the district court’s denial of the defendant’s suppression motion.

I

A Federal Express employee noticed something out of the ordinary about a package in the Brussels, Belgium warehouse. The alert Brussels scout notified Belgium Customs officials who examined the parcel, which was addressed to “Dr. Miller” at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, California. It contained MDMA, which turned out not to be materials concerning a physician with a master’s degree, but rather 20,000 methy-lenedioxymethamphetamine (or, to use its street name, “ecstacy”) tablets, concealed in video cassette boxes. To investigate this apparent “fed-ecstacy” scheme, Belgium Customs notified the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) Belgium Country Office and requested the agency’s assistance in effectuating a controlled delivery. The Los An-geles Field Division of the DEA agreed to conduct the requested controlled delivery.

DEA Special Agent Deanne Reuter then met with Roy Hill, the Area Director of Security…