Scent of marijuana proves fatal to NM fentanyl  prosecution

The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico has dismissed charges against a Rio Rancho woman caught in a traffic stop on Interstate 40 last year with more than a half million fentanyl pills.

Jordan Baldwin, now 24, faced up to life in prison if convicted but the case was dropped after her defense attorney challenged the search of her Camaro convertible as unconstitutional.

The stop didn't pass the smell test, the defense argued. 

The arresting officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nicholas Jackson, contended he detected an odor of marijuana after stopping Baldwin on June 11 for having too dark a tint on her car windows.

After she admitted having a small amount of unsmoked marijuana in her backpack, the officer expanded the stop into a drug investigation. Ultimately, Jackson located the 120 pounds of blue fentanyl pills in a duffel bag in the trunk.

"This is all I do ... I find criminals involved in criminal activity ... that's my primary focus... I'm not the regular police you're accustomed to," Jackson told Baldwin during the search, according to court records. Jackson has had his own podcast, for example, teaching drug interdiction techniques.

Prosecutors contended last November that "every step of the traffic stop in this case was lawful" and invited the judge on the case, U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs of Albuquerque, to assess the officer's credibility for herself at a suppression hearing.

But three days before that hearing was to occur last week, the U.S. Attorney's Office dismissed the charges in the "interest of justice." An agency spokeswoman declined to elaborate, but said Riggs never ruled on whether there was probable cause to search the trunk.

Baldwin's attorney, Robert Gorence of Albuquerque, had no comment last week. But in court filings, Gorence cast doubt on Jackson's credibility — from his legal jurisdiction, to his claim about the window tint, to the idea that he could smell marijuana while standing outside her stopped car.

In short, the officer lacked probable cause for the search, Gorence wrote in the motion.

"The import of this is that there was no possibility that Officer Jackson, without the benefit of the drug detection dog, could smell that quantity of raw marijuana in the backseat," the motion states.

"Simply put, it defies the power of human olfactory prowess," the motion states.

Efforts by the Journal to reach Jackson last week weren't successful. A request for comment from the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, went unanswered Friday.

Judge doesn't buy super sniffer claim

It wasn't the first case where Jackson's credibility was questioned.

Last June, U.S. District Judge David Urias of Albuquerque granted a motion to suppress the evidence in an August 2023 drug case in which Jackson, again on patrol in the median of I-40, pulled over two men for traveling 83 in a 75 mph zone.

In that case, Jackson contended he had probable cause to subsequently search the pair's Wagoneer SUV, based on "the immediate odor of burnt and unburnt marijuana emanating from the vehicle while he stood at the passenger window," court records state.

His subsequent search netted 962 grams of methamphetamine and 1.14 kilograms of fentanyl. In the center of the console, he discovered a green leafy substance in a clear plastic baggie tied shut. The amount of  marijuana was the size of a grape.

Federal authorities charged Patric Hyler-Williams and Leo Berry with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl.

But after the men's federal public defenders filed a motion to suppress the evidence, the judge questioned Jackson's account about smelling marijuana.

The smell of either burned or raw marijuana can establish probable cause to search a vehicle under the belief that the occupants are engaged in the trafficking of marijuana, Urias wrote in a 25-page opinion last June. 

But after listening to evidence at an Oct. 23 hearing, Urias stated that he found it difficult to accept that even a well-trained and experienced law enforcement officer "could credibly smell and recognize both 'burnt' and 'unburnt' marijuana at the same time coming from the same place." 

"That was hardly the amount of unburnt marijuana that one would imagine would emit an odor detectable by a human sniffer standing outside the vehicle...," he wrote.

Urias quoted a rationale from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that the issue of probable cause might be different if a trained drug-sniffing canine with a "good record" had alerted.

Jackson, who is a K-9 officer, testified he had a drug-sniffing dog in his patrol car when he stopped the Waggoner but didn't believe the dog was needed.

"The Court can only surmise that the officer may not have used the canine because he was concerned it would not alert to drugs," Urias ruled. 

With the evidence suppressed, the U.S. Attorney's Office dismissed the drug charges against the two men "in the interest of justice," and initially pursued an appeal of the judge's order. But prosecutors later dropped the appeal and the men went free.

"There is no question that fentanyl and methamphetamine are dangerous drugs and that law enforcement officials are tasked with the important duty of preventing this type of contraband from entering our communities," Urias wrote in his ruling.

"But such objectives, no matter how righteous, cannot justify the violation of an individual's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment."

Prosecutors contended Urias' ruling on Jackson's credibility was "made in error." 

Traffic stop tinged by doubt

Whether the officer had grounds to stop Baldwin for the window tint isn't clear. Noticing the Camaro as it passed him eastbound on the interstate, Jackson wrote in his report that he couldn't see any movement or outline inside the Camaro "even under bright daylight conditions."

But his lapel video showed the skies were cloudy at about 7 p.m., with rain showers in the area, Gorence contended. Moreover, he alleged the officer didn't have the authority to conduct a traffic stop in Bernalillo County.

The search occurred after Baldwin admitted to having "weed in the car" that was unburnt. He found less than an eighth of a gram of raw marijuana wrapped inside her backpack in the backseat, court records show.

In the trunk, the officer discovered a black duffel bag that contained the 120-pound stash of blue fentanyl pills.

Jackson has received praise from top officials at the U.S. Department of Interior, including after a 2019 traffic stop.

“I applaud the exemplary service demonstrated by K-9 Police Officer Nicholas Jackson and K-9 Kofi to safeguard our Nation’s communities, both tribal and non-tribal, from these addictive poisons, valued at more than 4 million dollars,” stated Interior Assistant Secretary Tara Katuk Sweeney in a 2019 news release.

Jackson, in one of his podcasts, stated that interdiction stops are "all I care about." On YouTube, he offers lessons for "Street Cop Training," and said he has to be "unorthodox" in his drug interdiction efforts.

"98% of stuff I learned in the academy," he said, "I cannot do that out there doing interdiction."