United States v. Sheldon A. Johnson, Reginald Colbert

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal by the Government, authorized by Section 1301 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act (82 Stat. 237, amending 18 U.S.C. § 3731), from a grant by the District Court of a pretrial motion to suppress evidence, in this case narcotics. Appellees were under indictment for violations of two federal narcotics statutes, 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) and 21 U.S.C. § 174. Our reading of the testimony leads us to the conclusion that the District Court’s ruling did not take account of one critical undisputed fact, namely, that the narcotics were observed in plain…