State v. Rodriguez

SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge.

The state appeals from an order suppressing cocaine which was hidden in a hollowed-out watermelon1 seized from the appellee at the Miami Amtrak station. It is admitted, as the trial judge found, that the police search of the straw fruit bag being carried by the defendant — a so-called narcotics mule — which yielded the contraband, was supported neither by probable cause *331nor effective consent. The prosecution’s only position is that — because of the nature or the “container” of the drugs2 and the fact that the appellee denied owning it (though she admitted it had been…