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00-3560 U.S. v. Limares

By: dmc-admin//October 22, 2001//

00-3560 U.S. v. Limares

By: dmc-admin//October 22, 2001//

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“Limares stresses that several investigations have found that some molecules of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs can be found by sophisticated apparatus on almost all currency. This has the potential to increase the rate of false positives, and if the rate becomes high enough then dogs will no longer be able to separate drugs from innocent activities. See United States v. $506,231 in U.S. Currency, 125 F.3d 442, 453 (7th Cir.1977). … Currency is bound to contain cocaine molecules – and for that matter some uranium and plutonium molecules too. But you can’t make an atomic bomb by combing U235 from currency that has passed through Hanford or Los Alamos. Whether you can confuse a drug-detection dog depends on how much cocaine and other drug residue clings to currency, and on how well dogs can distinguish among levels of drug residue – that is, on how dogs perform in practice, not, as Limares believes, how they were trained and ‘proofed off’ currency. An affidavit for a search warrant thus need not describe training methods or give the dogs’ scores on their final exams. It is enough if a dog is reliable in the field. Wendy’s handler testified that she has ‘never passed by anyone and suddenly done a turn for their wallet.’ The affidavits in support of the two warrants said that Wendy is reliable, and the evidentiary hearing proved that out: even if all alerts to currency are treated as false positives, Wendy has been right 62% of the time, enough to prevail on a preponderance of the evidence, and ‘probable cause’ is something less than a preponderance.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Lee, J., Easterbrook, J.

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