United States v. Santos Villarreal and Sergio Gonzalez

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

The district court held that a warrantless search of a fifty-five gallon drum labeled phosphoric acid and in transit to defendants by common carrier violated the Fourth Amendment and suppressed the evidence. The government appeals, arguing that the defendants had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the drum and that the agents had consent to perform the search. We find these arguments without merit and affirm.

I

One afternoon in February of 1991, employees at Southwest Motor Transport’s terminal in Brownsville became suspicious of two fifty-five gallon…