United States v. Montoya De Hernandez

Respondent Rosa Elvira Montoya de Hernandez was detained by customs officials upon her arrival at the Los Ange-les Airport on a flight from Bogota, Colombia. She was found to be smuggling 88 cocaine-filled balloons in her alimen*533tary canal, and was convicted after a bench trial of various federal narcotics offenses. A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed her convictions, holding that her detention violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because the customs inspectors did not have a “clear indication” of alimentary canal…