Cota-Mora

MEMORANDUM **

Alfonso Cota-Mora (“Cota”) appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence of marijuana discovered during a stop and search of his vehicle by U.S. Border Patrol Agents Michael Harrington (“Harrington”) and Jorge Vega-Torres (“Vega-Torres”). The stop occurred on June 14, 2007 in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which lies along the United States-Mexico border in Imperial County, California. Cota argues that the use of a controlled tire deflation device (“CTDD”) to stop his vehicle rendered the stop a de facto arrest for which probable cause was lacking, and also amounted to excessive force.

The disposition of this appeal is controlled by our concurrent decision in United States v. Guzman-Padilla. As in Guzman-Padilla, the facts here supported the agents’ reasonable certainty that Cota’s vehicle recently had crossed the border and their reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was a foot. The agents therefore were entitled to conduct an extended border search, 1 and the use of the CTDD to effect the stop did not convert it into an arrest or amount to “excessive force.” Because the stop was a lawful seizure incident to a border…