United States v. Djibo

151 F. Supp. 3d 297, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168440, 2015 WL 9274916
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedDecember 16, 2015
Docket15 CR 88 (SJ)(RER)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 151 F. Supp. 3d 297 (United States v. Djibo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Djibo, 151 F. Supp. 3d 297, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168440, 2015 WL 9274916 (E.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHNSON, Senior District Judge:

On January 11, 2015, an individual (“Cooperator”) was stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”) after arriving on a flight from Casablanca, Morocco. The Cooperator was found to have over six kilograms of heroin in his suitcase. Upon arrest, the Cooperator waived his Miranda rights and notified agents of the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) that he received the heroin from an individual in Togo and was planning to deliver the heroin to defendant Adamou Djibo (“Defendant” or “Djibo”) here in the Eastern District of New York. The Cooperator claimed this was his second time importing heroin from Togo, the first trip having been in May 2014. Immigration records confirmed ah “April/May 2014” trip. The Cooperator told agents that Djibo arranged both trips. .

The Cooperator’s phone was seized and searched. The Cooperator provided what he said is Djibo’s telephone number and email address. Text messages (either using the phone’s regular messaging platform or a text application called “WhatsApp”) were received from this number and the messages appeared to be coded. Discussions centered around going to a “doctor” who would perform “surgery” on either one, two or three “hands.” The agent believed [299]*299the “hands” referred to suitcases; the “surgery,” the trips; and the “doctor,” the individual abroad providing the drugs. Emails were also recovered from the Cooperator’s phone from the address he claimed .was Djibo’s. Flight reservations were sent from this address to the Cooperator, and the reservations listed Djibo’s telephone number (rather than the actual traveler) as the contact number associated with the reservation. Indeed, the Cooperator informed the government that he never made travel plans himself.

On December 7, 2014, Djibo sent a text message to the Cooperator indicating' that it was the “7th anniversary since our first surgery.” On December' 21, 2014, Djibo asked the Cooperator for his “acct #’ for “the prescriptions” On December 26, 2014, the date the Cooperator most recently deft the United States for.Togo, Djibo.sent him a photograph of a bank deposit slip reflecting a cash deposit into the Cooperator’s account. While the Cooperator W/as abroad, he sent a text message to Djibo stating that he would “go straight to the recovery room as usual” upon his return tp. the United States. The, Cooperator told agents that this meant they would meet at a Best Western Hotel in Jamaica, New York. On the evening of January 11, 2015, the Cooperator was arrested upon his return to JFK and did’ not make it to the Best Western Hotel. A final (and unanswered) message from Djibo was sent to the Cooperator: “Broruk [sic]?”

At the first of four suppression hearings, HSI Special Agent Thomas' Wilburt (“Wil-burt”) testified that, as a result of-the information provided by the Cooperator, Wilburt set up an alert to notify him of Djibo’s travel plans. At the time, Djibo was set to fly to the United Kingdom sometime in the spring but on February 1, 2015, Djibo advanced his trip to February 8, 2015, and was set to depart on ■ KLM Flight 644, with a final destination of London. Wilburt was so notified, and went to JFK’s Terminal 4, from which KLM Airlines operates. Wilburt then contacted officials from the United States Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) and- instructed them to screen Djibo in a walkway “five or six feet before the actual jet way.” According to Wilburt, Djibo “was stopped for, a border enforcement exam. They were checking to see if he was leaving with any money.” Wilburt defined the search as one for “contraband,” and when asked by the Court to define contraband stated:

If they’re leaving with any weapons, any — mostly it’s money, I think, they’re looking for. Drugs as well. Drugs, often they’ll go to Bermuda'. Drugs come in here and go to Bermuda, as opposed to Bermuda from here. This particular case, the main search .was for money.

CBP officers asked Djibo to fill out a declaration form typically, meant for inbound passengers, CPB Form 6059. The form asks the passenger, inter alia, to set forth the amount of currency , he or she is carrying. Wilburt testified that at that time, Djibo was asked (presumably by CBP) to move “off to the side, maybe seven or eight feet away.., from the line where he was stopped.” Indeed, CBP’s report indicates that Djibo was “escorted to a private area for inspection.” (Exh. 1 to Dkt. No. 59.) Wilburt, at this time, stood “two or three feet away” from Djibo and the CBP officers.

Two CBP officers checked Djibo’s bags, found his declaration form to be accurate and 'the amount of outbound currency to be legal. They found no other contraband. Djibo was, however, found to be carrying a number of cellular phones including, inter alia, an iPhone5 (the “iPhone”). At this point, Wilburt approached and asked for both the phone number to the iPhone5 and its passcode. Wilburt testified that these [300]*300questions are “part of the whole border enforcement exam.” Djibo answered Wil-burt’s questions and was then arrested, taken to a processing room and read his Miranda rights. He invoked those rights and the questioning ceased.

On cross-examination, Wilburt could not testify as to when and where the passcode was first entered into the iPhone:1

Counsel: Now at some point, you say somebody asked Mr. Djibo to put his password into his phone. Is that correct?
Wilburt: No. .
The Court: What did you say?
Wilburt: I never said Mr. Djibo put the password in his phone.
The Court: I understand that. What did you say?
Wilburt: I don’t understand the -question.
The Court: With respect to he’s asking you about Mr. Djibo putting the password into his cell phone. Do you recall that conversation or that testimony you gave?
Wilburt: I don’t recall testifying that he put his passcode into the phone.
Counsel: After they took his boarding pass and his passport, his password was put into his phone. Is that right?
Wilburt: I don’t know that his password was put into his phone then, no.
Counsel: Not his password, his passcode.
Wilburt: His passcode, I don’t know that his passcode was put into his phone.
Counsel: You never saw his passcode get put into his phone?
Wilburt: I don’t believe it was put into his phone then, no.
[...]
Wilburt: Yeah, I don’t know that password was put into that phone at that particular time: I asked him for the ■ password and he provided it to me.
Counsel: Was this during — was this after he was arrested that you asked for the password?
Wilburt: No.
Counsel: Was it during the currency examination?
Wilburt: During the border enforcement exam, I asked him for the password.
[...]
Wilburt: At some point, I put it into his phone. I don’t know if 1 did it right .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 F. Supp. 3d 297, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168440, 2015 WL 9274916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-djibo-nyed-2015.