Reasonable suspicion can support a stop for driving in tandem, but here it was lacking. United States v. Espino-Urvan, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73809 (S.D. N.Y. May 21, 2013):<\/p>\n
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Similarly, in United States v. Allen, 705 F.3d 367, 368 (8th Cir. 2013), the other case on which the Government principally relies, an Arkansas police officer noticed what appeared to be a green rental SUV with Texas license plates traveling on an interstate in Arkansas, approximately four car lengths behind a white rental minivan that also had Texas plates. The officer testified that he knew that Texas was a “source state” for narcotics coming into Arkansas and that vehicles transporting narcotics often traveled in tandem. Id. at 368. He also noted that the driver of the minivan “appeared nervous” and that the rear seats were folded down. Id. After “one or two minutes” of observation, he initiated a traffic stop of the white minivan. Id. When the officer approached the vehicle he smelled marijuana, and so he placed the driver under arrest and radioed his fellow officers to tell them that he had discovered marijuana in the minivan and to stop the green SUV, which he suspected was traveling with the white minivan. Id. at 369. The Eighth Circuit held that “it was not unreasonable to initiate a brief stop of the green SUV to investigate its possible association with the white minivan” given the facts of the case. Id. at 370<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
Here, the deficiencies that plague the Government’s probable cause argument similarly undermine its argument that the agents had reasonable suspicion for stopping Mr. Espino-Urvan and asking him to step out of the vehicle. The Charger and Escalade were not observed for a sufficient amount of time or distance by the agents to support a reasonable conclusion that they were traveling in tandem. Nothing was said by Mr. Lantigua in the conversations between the CS and Mr. Lantigua that day that would lead a reasonable person to believe that Mr. Lantigua would be arriving with a second, separate vehicle. Furthermore, when the two cars arrived, there was no communication between them and they parked in separate areas. The Court finds that the DEA agents also did not have reasonable suspicion to believe that the Escalade contained contraband or other evidence of a crime, which would have permitted them to ask Mr. Espino-Urvan to step outside of the vehicle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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