By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that agents at the border can take apart and search a vehicle's gas tank for drugs or contraband without violating constitutional privacy rights.
In a victory for the U.S. Justice Department, which argued routine searches can catch drug smugglers and terrorists, the high court said agents need not have a reasonable suspicion the gas tank contained illegal items.
The justices overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that such inspections violated the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence.
The decision, written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, reaffirmed the broad power of customs agents to conduct searches at the border, even if they do not have a specific reason to suspect wrongdoing.
"The government's interest in preventing the entry of unwanted persons and effects is at its zenith at the international border," Rehnquist wrote, adding the government has a "paramount interest" in protecting the border.
The case involved the inspection in 2002 of a Ford Taurus station wagon driven by Manuel Flores-Montano as he entered the Otay Mesa port of entry on the California border with Mexico.
A customs inspector noticed Flores-Montano avoided eye contact and his hands shook as he turned over his passport. The agent said the gas tank sounded solid when he tapped it with a screwdriver and that a drug-sniffing dog acted as if the vehicle contained narcotics.
A mechanic then removed the gas tank and the inspector found 37 kilograms of marijuana. After Flores-Montano was indicted on drug charges, he moved to suppress the marijuana found in the gas tank.
A federal judge and then a U.S. appeals court based in San Francisco ruled the marijuana cannot be used as evidence. The appeals court rejected the government's argument the border search was routine and reasonable suspicion was not needed.
Solicitor General Theodore Olson of the Justice Department warned the appeals court ruling created "an appreciable risk of encouraging terrorists to use gas tanks as a means to avoid the detection of explosives or other hazardous substances crossing the country's borders."
He said the government's need to protect the border outweighed any "modest intrusion" on an individual's privacy rights.
In the most recent year, more than 90 million vehicles carrying more than 250 million passengers entered the United States along the border with Mexico.
Olson said seizures from gas tanks have accounted for about 25 percent of all drug seizures along the Southern California border.
Rehnquist rejected arguments by Flores-Montano that taking apart the gas tank amounted to an invasion of his privacy.
Rehnquist said the expectation of privacy was less at the border than inside the country. "We have long recognized that automobiles seeking entry into this country may be searched," he wrote in the seven-page opinion.
"While it may be true that some searches of property are so destructive as to require a different result, this was not one of them," Rehnquist concluded.