United States of America v. Dinelson Hernandez-Rodrigues

Boston, Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with



Dinelson Hernandez-Rodriguez was

traveling southbound on Interstate 95 when the vehicle he was

driving was stopped by a Connecticut state trooper. Unbeknownst

to Hernandez-Rodriguez, that vehicle was being tracked by the Drug

Enforcement Administration ("DEA") as part of a months-long

drug-trafficking investigation. When DEA agents searched the

vehicle -- without first obtaining a warrant -- they discovered

$240,240 in a hidden compartment. Hernandez-Rodriguez was

subsequently charged with conspiring to distribute controlled

substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 and, shortly before his

scheduled trial, moved to suppress the evidence seized from the

vehicle as the fruit of an illegal search. The district court

denied the motion to suppress, determining that the warrantless

search was permissible under the automobile exception to the Fourth

Amendment's warrant requirement.

Following a jury trial, Hernandez-Rodriguez was convicted of the charged drug violation and sentenced to sixty-eight months' imprisonment.



Affirmed