D.Nev.: Def corroborated officer’s smelling MJ by admitting he smoked in the car the previous night

Defendant corroborated the officer’s observation of the smell of marijuana coming from the car when he admitted having smoked marijuana in the car the night before. He also corroborated the drug dog by admitting he kept marijuana where the dog found it. United States v. Mendoza, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186224 (D. Nev. March 14, 2016), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64797 (D. Nev. Apr. 28, 2017).

There were wires on a DTO involving cocaine on Cape Cod, and defendant was involved. Lead investigators sought a stop of defendant if a traffic stop could be done without blowing their cover. A stop occurred, and a drug dog was utilized, and he found a significant amount of cutting agent. While the stop was going on, text messages were received in the wire room sent to nine recipients that a shipment of cocaine had arrived. Officers had probable cause for defendant’s drug trafficking despite the traffic offense, and that would have justified the search of the car. United States v. Mott-Frye, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63169 (D. Mass. April 26, 2017).*

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