United States v. Jimmy Barrios-Moriera

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge:

When a police officer seizes a wrapped article that later turns out to be contraband, the defendant invariably argues that only after seeing the item unwrapped did the officer have probable cause to believe it was of a criminal nature, though his testimony at the suppression hearing is to the contrary. We examine that close question on this appeal by Jimmy Barrios-Moriera from a June 24, 1988 judgment of conviction in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Dearie, J.), convicting him of possession of more than 500 grams of cocaine with…