Cocaine Suppressed for Language Glitch

Engineering Evil

Wednesday, February 04, 2015Last Update: 2:40 PM PT

CORPUS CHRISTI (CN) – Eight kilos of cocaine the Border Patrol found in a car can’t be used as evidence because the driver didn’t know he could object to the search, a federal judge ruled.

The Border Patrol suspected the driver was smuggling human organs, according to the arrest report . Key to the judge’s granting suppression of evidence was the use of a Spanish phrase by a Border Patrol agent who is not fluent in the language.

Joaquin Vasquez-Gutierrez, of Mexico, pulled his 2014 Nissan Sentra into a Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita, Texas on Oct. 12, 2014, and agent Lisa Taranto ran the car’s license plate, court records show.

Sarita, pop. 238, the seat of Kenedy County, is about 90 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Taranto observed on her computer screen that the vehicle’s license plate had been flagged and…

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