Beepers

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In early December, U.S. Postal Inspectors were informed by U.S. Customs Agents at Los Angeles International Airport that upon an "alert" from a drug-sniffing dog, they had opened a package mailed from Thailand that contained a white powder later tested and confirmed to be heroin. The package was addressed to a home in San Rafael, California. The Customs agents forwarded the package to the Postal Inspectors in San Francisco so they could arrange a controlled delivery.

On December 4, Postal Inspectors obtained a federal search warrant to open and search the package; this search confirmed that the package was indeed filled with 41 grams of heroin.

Postal Inspectors repackaged the parcel and installed a small directional radio transmitter device ("beeper"). The beeper "beeped" every three seconds and could be heard within a range of 300-400 feet. The listener could only determine that the package was within a certain distance, not the direction from which it came or its exact location. A wire was also installed which would increase the "beeps" to 10 per second once the package was opened. The search warrant did not expressly authorize the installation of the beeper.

The Postal Inspectors then delivered the package to the post office for delivery to the address and set up surveillance in the vicinity of the house. Soon after the delivery, two men came out of the house and started to get into a car, when one of them noticed the package, took it into the house, and re-emerged a few minutes later. He returned to the car and both men left for about 45 minutes, during which time the postal inspectors continued to hear the beeper.

At about 11 a.m., Salih drove up in an orange Datsun and went into the house. 20 minutes later, he came out with a box and briefly entered the passenger's side of the Datsun. He went back inside and returned with a brown paper bag, got into the Datsun and drove away. As he did, the postal inspectors noticed the "beeping" beginning to fade, so they radioed other officers in the area and told them to stop Sahir's Datsun.

Police officers followed then stopped Sahir. They noticed a package on the front seat next to a nine-inch butcher knife. Sahir was arrested and turned over to the federal agents. The arresting officer turned the package over to his supervisor who in turn turned it over to a detective. The detective removed the wrapping and submitted it for fingerprint analysis. The heroin was then removed and retained as evidence.

Was the installation and subsequent monitoring of a "beeper" in this case proper? See California v. Salih, 219 Cal. Rptr. 603.

Tom Simpson
Wake Forest

Answer

(1) once alerted by reaction of trained narcotics detecting dog, customs officials were authorized to open package shipped to United States from Thailand; (2) after that initial justifiable search, installation and monitoring of “beeper” within package did not violate Fourth Amendment; and (3) police needed no new search warrant to open, after arrest of its possessor, package previously lawfully searched by customs

Also Note: The sniff by the trained narcotics dog is not a "search" under the 4th Amendment.  After properly opening the package and finding heroin, probable cause existed to obtain a search warrant.  The Court reasoned that the agents received no extra information from the beeper than they would have through visual surveillance.  No new search warrant was required for the police to open the package.