“THERE was no probable cause to support the search warrant,” said attorneys Robert Torres and Charity Hodson referring to the drug trafficking allegations against their client, Shou Qiu, also known as Ike.
In response to the prosecution’s opposition to their request to suppress and exclude evidence in the drug case against Qiu, the lawyers said: “This is not a situation where the court should apply the good faith exception, when the reason for any questionability of whether Mr. Qiu was a cooperating source or an independent drug trafficker was based on characterizations provided by the affiant to the magistrate judge.”
The lawyers added, “While exclusion may be a serious consequence, exclusion is a remedy provided by the U.S. Supreme Court as a deterrent sanction and it is an appropriate remedy here.”
Qiu was charged with drug trafficking and firearms possession. His attorneys, for their part, have accused the Drug Enforcement Administration of unlawful search and seizure.
The defendant also claimed that he was a cooperating informer of the Department of Public Safety-Drug Enforcement Task Force.
According to the defendant’s attorneys: “Mr. Qiu disputes that the search warrant was based on probable cause and further asserts that an evidentiary hearing is necessary to ferret out whether or not there was a reasonable belief of probable cause by the police….”
The lawyers said the U.S. government “has not opposed Mr. Qiu’s arguments that the cooperating sources relied upon…lacked veracity and basis of knowledge.”
“There was no probable cause,” the attorneys reiterated, “based upon the [U.S.] Government’s knowledge that Mr. Qiu was a cooperating source, and the uncorroborated statements regarding a person selling methamphetamine out of Room No. 639 were not enough to sustain a search warrant.”
According to the lawyers, “The pretext of the search warrant was that the DEA believed Mr. Qiu had a gun in his room, which was why they made the move for a search warrant, which belief was never disclosed to the magistrate judge who signed off on the search warrant.”
Recently, Assistant U.S. Attorney Garth Backe told the federal court that he will exclude evidence obtained by the DEA and DPS-DETF agents in hotel Room No. 339 in the trial of Shou Qiu.
Qiu has asked the District Court for the NMI to suppress and exclude evidence obtained by the authorities during his arrest in January 2020 at a hotel.
According to Qiu’s motion, the search warrant issued for Room No. 639 lacked probable cause for its issuance, and the items seized as a result of the illegal search must be excluded.
The motion also noted that police searched another hotel room, No. 339, without a warrant, “and the evidence seized therefrom must be excluded.”
On Jan. 12, 2022, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the NMI Drug Enforcement Task Force executed a search warrant and seized 1.6 pounds of methamphetamine, an undetermined amount of cash, and two handguns with ammunition from Qiu in his hotel room where he was staying for six months.
Qiu was charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance (methamphetamine), and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Qiu, in a freely given statement to the DEA, and through an interpreter, stated that he was mainly supplied by two people who would give him between 100 grams and 500 grams, depending on how his sales had been.
Qiu also said “he has more local customers than anyone on island.”
