The only remaining question is whether, in light of the information obtained during the stop, the officers had probable cause to seize Magallon-Lopez’s car. We think they did. As discussed above, given the reliability of the information gleaned from the wiretap intercepts, the officers had probable cause to believe that Juan Sanchez would be transporting methamphetamine by car on the date and during the time frame in question. That, in turn, gave the officers probable cause to believe that methamphetamine would be found inside the car in which Sanchez was riding, assuming they could identify the correct car.
As we have said, even before the officers stopped Magallon-Lopez’s car, the facts known to the officers provided reasonable suspicion to believe they had identified the correct car. The investigatory stop eliminated virtually any doubt on that score, as the stop confirmed that a man named Juan Sanchez was indeed a passenger in the car. Sure, he could have been a different Juan Sanchez, not the one mentioned in the wiretap intercepts, but the likelihood of that was minuscule given all the other details that matched, including the tattoo on Magallon-Lopez’s arm and the fact that both he and Sanchez admitted they were traveling to Minnesota. In light of these and the other details the officers were able to corroborate, there was “a fair probability” that the officers had stopped the right car and that drugs would be found inside. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983). That gave them probable cause to seize the car.
Because the officers had probable cause to seize the car even without the drug-detection dog’s positive alert, we need not address Magallon-Lopez’s argument that the dog’s lapsed certification rendered his alert insufficiently reliable under Florida v. Harris, 133 S. Ct. 1050 (2013).
