NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 20a0352n.06 No. 19-6125 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT Jun 15, 2020 DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF JONATHAN MENDOZA- KENTUCKY RICARDO, Defendant-Appellant. BEFORE: CLAY, ROGERS, and DONALD, Circuit Judges. CLAY, Circuit Judge. Defendant Jonathan Mendoza-Ricardo appeals his criminal conviction after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of marijuana. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. On appeal, Mendoza-Ricardo challenges his detention at a traffic stop as unreasonable, and thereby seeks to suppress his later confession. For the reasons that follow, we disagree and affirm Mendoza-Ricardo’s conviction. I. BACKGROUND In early February 2019, Bryn Elton—a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”)—was in Phoenix, Arizona, “conducting surveillance on a suspected narcotics trafficker.” (Hearing Tr., R. 125 at PageID #397, #400–01.) While monitoring that suspected trafficker, Agent Elton and her colleagues saw him load what they suspected to be bales of marijuana into the back of a Toyota Highlander. They decided to follow the Highlander, the start of what turned into a two-day “trip from hell,” in which the agents were led from state to state until finally arriving in Kentucky. (Id. at #401–02.) United States v. Mendoza-Ricardo No. 19-6125 When they reached the Lexington area, Elton says the vehicle performed a “countersurveillance run” in the parking lot of a shopping mall, after which it proceeded to a residence in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and backed into the driveway. (Id. at #402–03.) The HSI agents then set up surveillance around the house and began a stakeout. They also asked for support from local law enforcement, in case they needed uniformed officers to conduct a traffic stop or otherwise assist the agents with their work. One of the HSI agents, Matthew Hall, met with Nicholasville Police Department officers, informed them of the operation, and gave them a radio; the Nicholasville officers agreed to help if they could. At one point during the stakeout, a white work truck arrived at the house. The two men in the truck exited the vehicle, took small, grocery-store-type plastic bags from the truck, and walked into the house without knocking. According to Elton, the house in question appeared to be a stash house, meaning a location used for storing drugs. Based on her experience and training, drug dealers will not allow third parties into a stash house, and so it is very likely that anyone entering the house was involved in the conspiracy. After spending some time in the house, the two men returned to their truck and started to drive away. The car drove directly by Elton, who recognized the man sitting in the passenger seat as Fabian Zavala-Romero, an undocumented immigrant who was suspected of involvement in a large-scale narcotics operation in the Lexington area. At that point, Elton notified the team over the radio that Zavala-Romero was in the truck, and that the agents “had probable cause ...
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