Drug Courier Profile Essay

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According to Drugs, Society, and Criminal Justice, "drug courier profile" served as a tool to assist drug-law enforcement agents in identifying potential drug smugglers (Levinthal, 2012). There are several factors that solidify a drug-law enforcement agents' determination for this particular theory such as the individual is traveling solo and coming from an identified source country, the individual has an unusual itinerary and carries a minimal amount of luggage, the purchased flight ticket was paid with cash, the individual appears nervous and avoids any types of questions, and/or the individual gives contradicting answers to questions they are asked (Levinthal, 2012). "In the United States v. Sokolow (1989), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that drug courier profiles at airports could be used as a legitimate law enforcement tool, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. …show more content…

Sokolow was flying under a false identity and presented several factors to DEA Agents that led them to believe a crime was being committed or about to be committed. Sokolow was detained and a search revealed 1,063 grams of cocaine inside his carry-on luggage after a narcotics K-9 alerted on his carry-on bag (Levinthal, 2012). The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the search conducted by the DEA and credited the United States v. Cortez (1981) case that evolved around "totality of the circumstances". Furthermore, Chief Justice Rehnquist announced the seven to two decision and elaborated that all of the factors demonstrated by Sokolow, gave merit to the "drug courier profile" and the totality of circumstances that coincided with the factors of profiling (U.S. v. Sokolow,

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