An ongoing formal relationship between a U.S. law enforcement agency and its counterpart in a foreign country does not create an agency relationship sufficient to implicate the Fourth Amendment on searches conducted abroad, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled.
The circuit rejected the claim of convicted marijuana smuggler Stephen Lee, a U.S. citizen who while not the target of a Jamaican wiretap was nonetheless caught on tape discussing the shipping of drugs to New York. The wiretap evidence was passed on by Jamaican police to U.S. authorities who used it to obtain both their own electronic surveillance warrants and a grand jury indictment of Lee in the Eastern District.
