Opinion
July 9, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Pitaro, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
A package containing cocaine was seized from the defendant as a result of a United States Customs inspector's thorough pat-down search of her in a private room in the Customs area of John F. Kennedy International airport. This airport search was the functional equivalent of a border search (see, People v McKeown, 146 A.D.2d 716, 717). A Customs inspector who performs a thorough pat-down search as part of her border-patrolling activities must have some suspicion of criminal activity justifying the intrusion, which "need only be real and based upon legitimate factors" (People v. Luna, 73 N.Y.2d 173, 179). In this case, the defendant was traveling alone, without any checked luggage, and had disembarked from a flight originating in Jamaica — a country known to be a source of illegal drugs. The defendant informed the Customs inspector that she would only be staying in New York for 3 or 4 days and her passport revealed that she had made a prior trip from Jamaica within a relatively short period of time. The defendant was also in a hurry to leave the Customs area and appeared nervous to the eye of a well-trained, experienced Customs inspector. This conduct furnished the Customs inspector with a bona fide, articulable suspicion, justifying the minimally intrusive pat-down search leading to the discovery of the drugs (see, People v. Luna, supra; People v. Rivera, 143 A.D.2d 783; People v Materon, 107 A.D.2d 408).
We have reviewed the defendant's remaining contention and find it to be without merit. Mangano, P.J., Bracken, Rubin and Rosenblatt, JJ., concur.