USA v. Tenorio, No. 21-50989 (5th Cir. 2022)
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Following a bench trial, Appellant was convicted of smuggling bulk cash in violation of 31 U.S.C. Section 5332. He was sentenced to sixteen months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence, arguing that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained from a stop and search at the border as he was leaving the United States and attempting to enter Mexico.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed. The court explained that the border-search exception allows “routine” searches and seizures without individualized suspicion or probable cause. Here, Appellant first argued that the canine sniff of his person required reasonable suspicion. The court wrote it did not because the canine sniff here was a routine border search and therefore did not require individualized suspicion. Appellant’s detention did not exceed the bounds of routine border searches and therefore did not require reasonable suspicion. Finally, the district court did not err in denying Appellant’s suppression motion
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