United States v. Quoc Viet Hoang

Quoe Viet Hoang entered a conditional guilty plea to federal narcotics charges after methamphetamine was found in a package sent to him via FedEx. A narcotics detection dog alerted to the package while it was in transit, and it was then diverted while a search warrant was obtained. The search revealed the presence of drugs, and a controlled delivery to Hoang resulted in his arrest. Before entering his plea, Hoang moved to suppress evidence of the methamphetamine, asserting that the detention and search of the package violated the Fourth Amendment. He contends that the district court erred by refusing to conduct an evidentiary hearing and by denying the motion to suppress. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . Because under United States v. England, 971 F.2d 419 (9th Cir.1992), a temporary diversion of a package that does not affect its regularly scheduled delivery does not violate the Fourth Amendment, we affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

On November 2, 2004, an Orange County Sheriffs Department investigator, Officer Todd, was inspecting packages at the FedEx World Service Center Office at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. FedEx Corporate…