Gilles

MEMORANDUM *

The district court properly denied the defendants’ motion to suppress. The defendants were under arrest at the point they were informed they were being detained pending the application of a search warrant for their luggage. Given the tip to the FBI, the corroboration of that tip by several law enforcement agencies, and the lies told by the defendants while the encounter with the DEA was still consensual, there was probable cause for that arrest.

Consent was still necessary to search the defendants’ luggage. But, after weighing the appropriate factors, the district court found the defendants’ consent was free and voluntary — and we can find no clear error in this determination. 2 “[W]e previously have held that even in the unfortunate absence of a search warrant, the existence of probable cause, as in the present case, lessens any need for us to deem that a consent was invalid on the basis of a police officer’s statements regarding the obtaining of a search warrant.” 3 Brittingham’s suggestion that there is no factual basis for his acquiescence to the search is without merit.

Defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment was properly denied. Nothing indicates that…