United States v. Adela Morales-Zamora

McWILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge.

On February 10, 1989, Adela Morales-Zamora (Zamora) and her seven-year old son were traveling north on Interstate 25 when she was stopped at a roadblock in Socorro, New Mexico, by officers of the Socorro Police Department. She was told that the purpose of the roadblock was to check her driver’s license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance. As one officer checked these documents, another officer walked a trained narcotics-detection dog around the exterior of Zamora’s vehicle.

Before the document check was completed, the dog “alerted” to the car. Zamora…