OPINION
{1} In this case, we must determine whether a tip provided by a named informant was sufficiently complete and reliable to provide reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop regarding drugs. We also examine the scope of the resulting detention of the vehicle for thirty-five to forty minutes while officers awaited the arrival of a canine unit. We conclude that the tip was sufficiently reliable to provide reasonable suspicion because the informant was identified, the tip predicted the future movement of Defendant, and other significant facts provided in the tip were corroborated by the officers. We also conclude that detention of the vehicle was reasonable in light of the circumstances. Accordingly, we affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
{2} Detective Dan Aguilar of the Clovis Police Department received a tip from an individual who provided identification but requested that the identification be kept confidential. This informant told Detective Aguilar that Defendant and her husband would be delivering fourteen grams of methamphetamine to an address on Tom Watson Street in Clovis, New Mexico. The informant described their vehicle as a silver and white pickup with a personalized license plate, “GLR.” Detective Aguilar contacted officers in the Region V Drug Task Force to report the details of the tip. He identified the informant and notified the officers of the informant’s request that his identity remain confidential. Detective Aguilar contacted the officers later in the day to report that he had completed a registration check on the vehicle and that it was located in the 1400 block of Pile Street. When the officers first went to Pile Street, the truck was not there. Later, at about 6:45 p.m., Detective Aguilar again called the officers to report that the vehicle was on the 1400 block of Pile Street.
{3} The officers went to Pile Street for the second time, where they saw the pickup with the personalized license plate, as described in the tip. They saw the vehicle’s lights come on; it then proceeded south toward the Tom Watson address. The officers followed the vehicle until it was within two or two and a half blocks from the destination described in the tip. They stopped the vehicle as Defendant was about to turn from a four-lane road onto a narrow, poorly lit, two-lane road with no shoulder. The officers testified that for safety and investigative reasons, they did not want Defendant to reach the designated destination.
{4} The officers further testified as follows: They stopped Defendant to investigate whether she was in possession of methamphetamine, as reported in the tip; they did not stop Defendant for a traffic violation. Defendant and another woman were the occupants of the pickup. The officers told Defendant that they had been informed that Defendant was “carrying some dope.” After Defendant denied that she was in possession of drugs and denied consent to search, the officers requested the assistance of a drug dog. The canine unit arrived approximately thirty-five to forty minutes later, and the dog alerted to the truck. After the dog alerted, the first search warrant was obtained. Although it is unclear as to when Defendant actually left, she conceded that she was free to leave after the initial questioning and, in fact, did so.
{5} The initial search revealed, in Defendant’s purse, a crystal substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine and, in a briefcase, glass pipes used to consume methamphetamine. Chemicals used to produce methamphetamine were found in the bed of the truck, which was covered by a camper shell. For safety reasons, the officers obtained a second search warrant for the bed of the truck so that any chemicals could be immediately destroyed. Subsequently, Defendant was charged with one count of trafficking by manufacturing of methamphetamine, a second-degree felony, NMSA 1978, § 30-31-20(A)(l) (1990), and one count of possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, a fourth-degree felony, NMSA 1978, § 30-31-23(A), (D) (2005).
{6} The district court denied Defendant’s motion to suppress. Defendant pled no contest to two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a third-degree felony, NMSA 1978, § 30-31-22(A)(2)(a) (2005), and one count of possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, § 30-31-23(A), (D). The plea was conditional and reserved Defendant’s right to appeal the denial of her motion to suppress.
{7} Defendant argues that the evidence from the search should have been suppressed (1) because the tip was neither reliable nor sufficient to create reasonable suspicion for the investigatory stop and (2) because the scope of the investigatory stop was unreasonable and resulted in the improper seizure of Defendant’s pickup without probable cause. Agreeing with the State, the district court found the tip to be sufficiently reliable to create reasonable suspicion. As to the scope of the stop, the district court determined that the length of detention was not an impermissible delay because the search was contemporaneous with an arrest. The State does not contend that the search was contemporaneous with an arrest; rather, it asserts that the stop did not exceed the permissible scope of the investigation. See State v. Rector,
II. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
{8} Reviewing a motion to suppress concerns mixed questions of fact and law. State v. Urioste,
{9} Questions of reasonable suspicion are reviewed de novo by looking at the totality of the circumstances to determine whether the detention was justified. Van Dang,
B. Constitutional Protections
{10} Defendant generally asserts that the investigatory stop was a violation of both the United States Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution. She relies on Aguilar v. Texas,
{11} By prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, the Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons ... and effects.” U.S. Const, amend. IV; State v. Morales,
C. Investigatory Stop
{12} A police officer may make an investigatory stop if, under the totality of the circumstances, he has a reasonable and objective basis for suspecting a particular person has committed or is committing a crime. Werner,
{13} Reasonable suspicion depends on the reliability and content of the information possessed by the officers. State v. Contreras,
{14} Moreover, an informant’s ability to predict a person’s future behavior demonstrates a “special familiarity” with that individual’s affairs. Id. ¶ 11 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). This familiarity is an indication that the informant has access to reliable information about a person’s illegal activities. Id. When significant aspects of the information are verified, an officer can reasonably believe in both the reliability of the information and the informant’s veracity. Id. Thus, the defendant’s movement through time is the most important factor in assessing whether an officer’s suspicion based on an informant’s tip is reasonable. Id. ¶ 14.
If the tipster can be said to be in on an action that is taken by the suspect in the future, from the point of view of the time the tip is given, then as a matter of law, the asserted illegality can be associated with the prediction so as to increase the reliability of the tip.
Id. Finally, in determining “whether enough facts were corroborated beyond the basic and important future movement factor,” we compare the number and type of corroborated facts to those in previous cases in which courts have held that the corroborated facts rose to the level of reasonable suspicion. Id. ¶ 15.
{15} The tip in the case here is more reliable than the tip in Urioste. In Urioste, the police received a tip at approximately 4:30 p.m. Id. ¶2. The informant described the vehicle, driver, route, and time of the defendant’s movement in the future. Id. Our Supreme Court concluded that the accurate prediction of the defendant’s future movement in time and place, combined with the other facts in the tip that were corroborated by the officer, was sufficient to provide reasonable suspicion. Id. ¶¶ 14-15.
{16} Our case is very similar to Urioste. The tip correctly predicted Defendant’s future movement. The officers corroborated Defendant’s future movement when they followed the vehicle that she was driving to within two and a half blocks of the destination provided by informant. The officers also corroborated the description of the vehicle, including the personalized license plate. Defendant argues that the absence of her husband from the vehicle was an indication that the tip was not reliable. However, it was reasonable for the officers to believe that the husband was present in the vehicle prior to the stop because they were following a vehicle that had two occupants. See Florida v. J.L.,
{17} Defendant argues that the tip in her case is more like the tip found to be insufficient in J.L. than the tip found to be sufficient in Urioste. See J.L. at 268,
{18} Defendant also alleges that the tip was inherently unreliable because the informant was an acquaintance of Defendant’s and, seeking revenge, set her up. Defendant presents no evidence that the officers were aware of any relationship between the informant and Defendant at the time of the tip and the subsequent investigatory stop. Thus, even if these allegations are true, the reasonableness of the stop and detention is not affected. See J.L.,
{19} We conclude that the tip was sufficiently reliable and complete because the identity of the informant was known to the officers and because significant aspects of the tip, including Defendant’s future movement, were corroborated by the officers prior to the stop. Under the totality of these circumstances, the tip provided specific articulable facts, corroborated by the officers, that were sufficient to give the officers reasonable suspicion that Defendant was in possession of narcotics. See State v. Flores,
D. Scope of the Stop
{20} Defendant argues that detaining the vehicle was an unreasonable seizure that required probable cause. Existing law provides no support for Defendant’s position. “An officer who makes a valid investigatory stop may briefly detain those he suspects of criminal activity to verify or quell that suspicion.” Werner,
{21} There are several factors that must be considered when we determine whether the scope of an investigatory stop is permissible: the government’s justification for the detention, the character of the intrusion on the individual, the diligence of the police in conducting the investigation, and the length of the detention. First, in determining whether there is a reasonable justification for the detention, we balance the government’s justification for the official intrusion against the character of the intrusion on a person’s right to be free from police interference. Id. at 318,
{22} The government has a significant interest in preventing the use and distribution of an illegal substance, such as methamphetamine. See Place,
{23} Second, the scope of the search and seizure must be justified by and limited to the circumstances that created reasonable suspicion for the stop. Terry,
{24} Defendant further argues that her detention was unlawful, in light of Flores, because the investigatory stop must come to an end when the initial suspicion of illegal conduct is dispelled. See Flores, 1996— NMCA-059, ¶ 13,
{25} In the roadside stop in our case, the officers’ suspicions were not dispelled after the initial questioning of Defendant; thus, additional articulable facts were not necessary to justify the detention of the vehicle. Defendant was extremely nervous during the initial questioning. After she denied consent to search, the officers requested a drug dog to quickly confirm or dispel their continuing suspicions. Within forty minutes after the officers stopped the vehicle and tried to obtain consent, the canine unit arrived, and the dog alerted to the illegal substances within Defendant’s vehicle. It was only after the dog arrived and alerted to the illegal substances that there was any resolution to the officers’ suspicions.
{26} Moreover, Defendant asserts that she exhibited no unlawful conduct that would justify detention of the vehicle. This argument also fails. Notwithstanding the fact that reasonable suspicion already existed, based on the tip, we note that reasonable suspicion “can arise from wholly lawful conduct.” Urioste,
{27} Although the State contends that Defendant did not clearly address the temporal scope of the stop, we read her brief to challenge the length of the detention. Because the duration of a stop is a factor in determining reasonableness, we consider Defendant’s argument. See Van Dang,
{28} In Werner, the scope of the detention violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights when, fifteen to twenty minutes after the initial stop, he was moved to the back seat of a locked patrol car, where he remained for more than forty-five minutes.
{29} The investigatory stop in our case is decidedly different from that in Werner. First, Defendant’s freedom of movement was not severely restricted. Defendant was told she was free to leave, and she did so. Second, as discussed earlier, the government’s substantial interest in preventing the use and distribution of methamphetamine outweighs the minimal intrusion that occurs with the use of a drug dog. Finally, the officers clearly acted with diligence. The record reveals that after Defendant refused consent to search, the officers immediately requested the assistance of a drug dog. The canine unit arrived within thirty-five to forty minutes after the officers stopped the vehicle and tried to obtain consent. A delay of this duration is not unreasonable when the off-duty officer on call with the drug dog lived approximately ten miles, seventeen minutes travel time, from the stop. See United States v. Bloomfield,
{30} Other jurisdictions have concluded that similar detentions of people or property are reasonable when an off-site drug dog has been summoned to investigate reasonable suspicion of drug crimes. See United States v. White,
III. CONCLUSION
{31} Based on the tip provided by a named informant, the officers had reasonable suspicion that Defendant had or was engaged in criminal conduct because the tip accurately predicted the future movement of Defendant and because other significant aspects of the tip were corroborated by the officers. Moreover, detention of the vehicle for thirty-five to forty minutes to await a canine unit was within the permissible scope of the investigatory stop; the officers acted diligently, with minimal intrusion, to verify or dispel their reasonable suspicion that Defendant was in possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Therefore, we affirm the district court’s denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence.
{32} IT IS SO ORDERED.