Case: 18-40434 Document: 00515064162 Page: 1 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED No. 18-40434 August 5, 2019 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk DANIEL ENRIQUE CANTÚ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JAMES M. MOODY; ERIN S. LABUZ, also known as Erin S. Hayne; NATHAN HUSAK; DAVID DE LOS SANTOS; RYAN PORTER; ROSA LEE GARZA; ALFREDO BARRERA; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; CHRISTOPHER LEE, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Before CLEMENT, GRAVES, and OLDHAM, Circuit Judges. ANDREW S. OLDHAM, Circuit Judge: Daniel Enrique Cantú is a member of the Texas Mexican Mafia. He says the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws afford him money damages against state and federal law enforcement officers for claims arising from a drug bust. We disagree. Case: 18-40434 Document: 00515064162 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 No. 18-40434 I. A. This case arises from a transnational drug-trafficking investigation. In 2010, the federal government began investigating the Texas Mexican Mafia. As part of its investigation, the government identified Jesus Rodriguez Barrientes as the gang’s leader in the Rio Grande Valley. Working with state and local law enforcement, the FBI planned a sting operation as part of Barrientes’s regular heroin purchases from Mexican drug smugglers. FBI agents convinced Juan Pablo Rodriguez, a member of the Texas Mexican Mafia, to work as an informant. When Barrientes’s heroin shipment arrived, Rodriguez would meet the drug smugglers at the border and then drive everyone to a drop-off location. There Rodriguez would deliver the heroin to whomever Barrientes designated as his authorized recipient. On the morning of August 10, 2011, things went mostly according to plan. Rodriguez, accompanied by an undercover police officer, drove to the Rio Grande where he met the drug smugglers. Then, at 7:30 a.m., Rodriguez called Cantú and asked him to come to an H-E-B parking lot so they could talk in person. According to Cantú, Rodriguez did not say what he wanted to talk about. When Cantú arrived, he parked to the left of Rodriguez’s car and rolled down his passenger-side window. Rodriguez then got out of his car, went to the trunk, took out a cooler, and placed it through Cantú’s open window and onto the passenger seat. “I need you to do me a favor,” Rodriguez allegedly said. Cantú says he had time to ask only one question—“What are you doing?”—before forty-five law enforcement officers descended on his vehicle. One of the officers, FBI Agent David de los Santos, pulled Cantú from his car, searched him, and placed him under arrest. The cooler contained nearly two kilograms of heroin. 2 Case: 18-40434 Document: 00515064162 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/05/2019 No. 18-40434 Although Cantú says he remained in his car the whole time and never touched the cooler, two federal agents swore otherwise in affidavits. FBI Agent James Moody said Cantú exited his vehicle and personally took the cooler from Rodriguez’s trunk. FBI Agent Erin LaBuz said ...
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