United States v. Joseph Omotunde Filani

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge:

On November 30, 1993 Joseph O. Filani landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, arriving on an Air France flight from Paris. He was returning home to Little Rock, Arkansas from a trip to Nigeria. Filani, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, is the father of four children, and at the time of these events he had been a U.S. resident for 14 years and owned a janitorial business in Little Rock. After landing, Filani went through a routine U.S. Customs Service inspection. What happened at the customs stop was the subject of conflicting…