Profiling, Drug Courier

In the early 1970s, the drug courier profile emerged as a law enforcement tool used to combat the influx of drugs into the United States. A drug courier profile consists of a list of characteristics assumed typical of individuals carrying illicit drugs. Commonly used by law enforcement officials to distinguish drug traffickers from regular citizens, an individ-ual's exhibition of multiple profile traits triggers the suspicion of expert narcotics officers. Such profiles have been used extensively by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) at airports to counter the trafficking of illegal drugs into source cities, such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and New York. Successful DEA use of the profiles in identifying drug couriers at airports prompted state and local law enforcement to use similar profiles. Drug trafficking on the country's highways has been a significant method of drug distribution. Because jurisdiction for the nation's roads falls to local law enforcement agencies, many of these agencies adopted drug courier profiling as part of the country's overall antidrug strategy. Despite its considerable utility in detection of drug couriers, use of these profiles has been the subject of considerable legal debate, particularly on the state and local level, where expanded use of drug courier profiles primarily includes their application during automobile stops. In the 1990s, the use of drug courier profiles by local law enforcement, who had adapted it from the federal government for use on the nation's highways, led to charges of racial profiling in numerous jurisdictions around the country. It is a controversy that still continues.

DEA Special Agent Paul Markonni is credited as the developer of the original drug courier profile in 1974. Before the profile's inception, the absence of a comprehensive profile made narcotics officers dependent upon the tips provided by other law enforcement agencies and airline personnel in the identification of drug traffickers. Without the profile, many couriers evaded DEA detection. Over time, the DEA noted a pattern of characteristics exhibited by drug couriers, enabling agents to decipher them from other passengers.

Although no single national drug courier profile exists, the profiles consulted by each law enforcement office are quite similar. All drug courier profiles include a set of characteristics routinely associated with narcotics traffickers. Although the characteristics are seemingly irrelevant to the typical civilian, specially trained law enforcement officers recognize them as indicative of drug trafficking. Despite various commonalities shared by existent profiles, profiles do differ from airport to airport.

In United States v. Elmore (1979), the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit outlined seven primary characteristics central to the drug courier profile established by Agent Markonni: arrival from (or departure to) a recognized source city (e.g., Miami or Los Angeles); carrying little or no luggage (or numerous empty suitcases); suspicious itinerary (including rapid turnaround time preceding lengthy airplane travel); use of an alias; presence of unusually large amounts of currency in thousands of dollars on their person, in briefcases, or in bags; purchasing airline tickets with a large amount of small-denomination currency; and unusual nervousness beyond that which is typical of average passengers. Furthermore, the court in Elmore specified four secondary characteristics of the drug courier profile: a near-exclusive use of public transportation (particularly taxicabs) when leaving the airport, immediate phone calls following deplaning, providing the airline used with a false or fictitious telephone number, and excessively frequent travel to source/ distribution cities.

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