The Ninety-Minute Bag

At Miami International Airport, detectives grew suspicious of the Defendant while he waited to buy a one-way ticket to New York, noticing that the tags on his two checked suitcases named streets that did not exist and a phone number tied to a different address. Word reached federal agents in New York, and the Defendant was allowed to fly on and land without incident at LaGuardia Airport. There, DEA agents approached him after he claimed his luggage and called for a car. He refused to consent to a search, so an agent said the suitcases would be taken before a federal judge for a warrant; the Defendant was left free to go, while agents drove the bags to Kennedy Airport instead. About ninety minutes after the suitcases were taken, a trained narcotics dog sniffed the luggage and alerted to one bag. Agents kept the suitcases over the weekend, obtained a warrant Monday morning, and opened the bag to find cocaine inside. At issue is whether detaining a traveler's luggage for roughly ninety minutes on reasonable suspicion alone, without a warrant, before a trained dog ever sniffs it, goes too far.