![]() There are a few instances where police might lawfully search a package at a carrier facility without a warrant. ![]() Investigators seeking probable cause for a search warrant might even visit a location associated with a sender or receiver to establish that sender information was fictitious. Nervousness, excessive eagerness, unusual interest in a package, fictitious information, or strong odors from a package might all be construed as indicators of illegal activity. The drug dog, through a handler, provides probable cause.īesides drug dogs, investigators my use other information to assert probable cause. If a drug dog thinks a box of incense mailed from Colorado smells like something illegal, a judge will likely issue a warrant. Investigators often rely on drug dogs to find contraband among millions of packages in transit at carrier facilities. Packages shipped by private carrier that uses commercial passenger airlines to carry cargo might also be subject to inspection by Transportation Security Administration officials. Carriers frequently open packages and notify police of contents. Media reports indicate private carriers do not consider their customers cargo to be private. Private carriers like UPS or FedEx might open packages they deem suspicious. To obtain a warrant, investigators must state what probable cause they have to believe the package contains evidence of a crime. Regional drug task forces often partner with postal inspectors to carry out drug parcel investigations. The biggest difference is that the USPS has its own cadre of postal inspectors and procedures for inspecting packages. If it’s not obviously dangerous or headed overseas, officials need a warrant to open your packages. Rules for inspection of packages are generally the same with private carriers and USPS. Ammunition, for example, can be shipped by private carrier but not by USPS. For the most part, laws about what can be shipped are the same, with exceptions. Postal Service or by private carrier such as UPS or FedEx. First, we need to note that a package might be transported either through the U.S. If detectives can’t carry your UPS or FedEx package out to the parking lot and sneek a peek to see if it’s worth asking for a search warrant, what can they do? Exactly how private are your letters and packages once they leave your mailbox? Drug Dogs Behind Most Warrants When contraband was found, the drug cops sought warrants to cover up their illegal searches. They caught him and two other detectives carrying packages from inside the UPS facility to a private vehicle, where packages were opened, searched and resealed. ![]() Altogether, Willet was charged with stealing $74,400 from UPS packages at the carrier facility where he was assigned to work as a drug detective.Īfter the sheriff’s investigators in California contacted Louisville police, investigators installed hidden cameras in the areas where Willet worked. The California detectives had expected to find $40,000 in the package delivered to them as part of a drug investigation. The senior detective’s $4.76 McDonald’s receipt had found its way to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in California, where it exposed his crimes and cost him his career. Kyle Willet served 5 months in federal prison for a felony conviction on theft from an interstate shipment. Among the three implicated, he was the only officer charged with a crime related to the unauthorized searches of UPS packages at the Louisville facility.įormer Louisville Det. One rogue cop on the task force did not even care enough to take the receipt out of the fast food trash he stuffed into a purloined UPS package from which he had stolen cash. At least three of the five member task force simply did not bother with search warrants in many cases – at least not until after they had opened packages at a UPS processing facility. Bill of Rights balance between freedom and power was too heavily tilted toward freedom. Not satisfied with courts’ generous grants of “good faith” exceptions and other such loopholes, members of a drug task force in Louisville, Ky. ![]() Yet even those recent judicial allowances for Colonial-style search authority is apparently not enough for some zealous drug warriors. courts have carved out awkward and arguably spurious exceptions to the beloved search and seizure amendment. The founders balanced government power against a mandate for personal and social freedom. Drug Cop Pried Open Packages, Pilfered Cashįourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches echo the reasons America’s founding fathers declared their independence from Britain in 1776. ![]()
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