United States Court of Appeals,
Eleventh Circuit.
No. 94-4768.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Jaime Antonio RODRIGUEZ, Defendant-Appellee.
Feb. 14, 1996.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Florida. (No. 93-490CR-FAM), Federico A. Moreno, Judge.
Before EDMONDSON and DUBINA, Circuit Judges, and CUDAHY*, Senior
Circuit Judge.
PER CURIAM:
This case involves a traveler who was suspected of smuggling
drugs in his alimentary canal, that is, an internal drug carrier.
The traveler was detained for about ninety minutes by customs
agents as he entered the country. While he was detained, heroin
was discovered as a result of a bowel movement;1 but the district
2
court ordered that the heroin pellets be suppressed. The
government appealed. We reverse and remand for further
proceedings.
That customs agents had—from the circumstances, including the
traveler's inconsistent statements—reasonable suspicion that the
*
Honorable Richard D. Cudahy, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge for
the Seventh Circuit, sitting by designation.
1
Seventy-five heroin pellets were passed over the next
thirty hours.
2
Rodriguez sought to suppress both the pellets and some
post-arrest statements made to custom officials. The district
court granted Rodriguez's motion on the pellets but denied the
motion on the statements. The denial of the motion to suppress
the statements is not before us.
traveler was a drug smuggler is not contested. The question
presented involves the significance of a clean bowel movement the
traveler had soon after he was detained. The first heroin pellet
was excreted in a later bowel movement. The district court
concluded that the first bowel movement destroyed the previously
existing reasonable suspicion. We disagree.
Once reasonable suspicion exists that a person entering the
country is an internal drug smuggler, the government may detain the
traveler until enough time has passed to allow the contents of the
suspected smuggler's stomach to be excreted. See United States v.
Henao-Castano, 729 F.2d 1364, 1366 (11th Cir.1984). The
traveler-suspect often has some control over the length of his
detention; for example, he could choose the usually speedier
alternative of an x-ray examination.
We accept that there may be limits on how long police can
detain a suspected internal carrier (or how many bowel movements
can be required); these limits, however, have not been approached
in this case where the international traveler was held only ninety
minutes and when only two bowel movements were involved. Cf.
United States v. Mosquera-Ramirez, 729 F.2d 1352, 1355 (11th
Cir.1984) (approving twelve hour detention of suspected swallower
who refused x-ray examination); United States v. Onumonu, 967 F.2d
782, 784-85 (2d Cir.1992) (approving six day detention); United
States v. Odofin, 929 F.2d 56, 58 (2d Cir.1991) (approving 24 day
detention of suspected swallower); United States v. Yakubu, 936
F.2d 936, 937 (7th Cir.1991) (approving 20 hour detention).
REVERSED and REMANDED.