Brady Ray Long pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846 and was sentenced to 246 months of imprisonment. He appeals the district court’s 1 decision to deny *794 his motion to suppress evidence, as recommended by the magistrate judge 2 to whom the matter was referred. He also appeals his sentence, challenging the district court’s drug quantity determination.
I. Background
Long and Peggy Albers were associates in selling methamphetamine. They bought approximately eight to ten ounces of methamphetamine twice a week during July and August of 2004. On September 2, 2004, Long was taken into custody for having violated the terms of his supervised release on an earlier federal narcotics violation conviction. During Long’s September-Oetober incarceration, Albers sold approximately 100 ounces of methamphetamine to their customers. Long’s supervised release was revoked on October 22, 2004, and he was given a one-week release pending his self-surrender on October 29 to begin his new term of imprisonment.
Long and Albers planned to make a sale to a reseller, Vickie Munroe, the transaction to occur on the night of October 27, 2004. Earlier that day, Long and Albers met at People Brokers, a business that Long co-owned, where they packaged their methamphetamine. When Munroe arrived that night, Long and Albers discovered that they had left the methamphetamine at People Brokers, so Long took Albers’s car to recover the drugs.
Lake Ozark police officer Dale Heiser was patrolling at about midnight that night near People Brokers, which law enforcement believed was a frequent site of large methamphetamine sales. Heiser noticed a vehicle headed in the direction of People Brokers, so he pulled over and waited. About five minutes later, Heiser saw the same vehicle returning. Finding this to be suspicious activity in that area at that time of night, Heiser followed the vehicle, which turned out to be driven by Long, and observed it cross the center yellow line, following which it slowly veered back to the white fog line on the right side of the road, leading Heiser to believe that the driver may have been intoxicated. Shortly thereafter, Long turned on his left blinker at a point at which no exit existed and then turned the blinker off, whereupon Heiser pulled the vehicle over to check on the driver’s sobriety. Heiser asked Long if he had been drinking, took Long’s license and insurance card, and asked Long to step out of the car for a sobriety test, which Long completed successfully. Long’s hands were shaking and he was perspiring, and he appeared to be noticeably more nervous than the normal person that Heiser pulled over. Heiser then asked Long for consent to search the vehicle. Long responded that it was not his vehicle. Heiser informed Long that his control over the vehicle authorized him to consent to a search and again asked for consent, which Long then granted. As a part of his officer-safety pat-down procedure, Heiser asked whether Long had anything in his pockets. Long immediately stuck his hand in his pocket, prompting Heiser to order him to withdraw it. As Long did so, a small piece of paper fell to the ground. Having seen drugs stored in many types of innocuous items like paper, Heiser examined the piece of paper and discovered a small amount of what appeared to him to be methamphetamine, whereupon he placed Long under arrest for possession. The subsequent search of Long’s vehicle revealed a cooler containing fifteen bags of methamphetamine and several thousand *795 dollars that he and Albers intended to use to purchase another ten ounces from their regular supplier.
II. Constitutionality of the Stop
“When reviewing a district court’s denial of a motion to suppress, we examine the findings of fact for clear error and review
de novo
whether the investigatory stop and search violated the Fourth Amendment.”
United States v. Gilliam,
Long argues that the initial traffic stop was illegal because Heiser lacked reasonable suspicion that Long was involved in illegal activity. Police may “briefly stop a moving automobile to investigate a reasonable suspicion that its occupants are involved in criminal activity.”
United States v. Winters,
In addition to the evidence of Long’s possible intoxication, Heiser’s observation of Long’s traffic violation gave him probable cause to stop the vehicle.
United States v. Chatman,
Long next argues that even if the initial stop was valid, it was unconstitutionally extended because Heiser asked for consent to search the car after finding no evidence of intoxication or other impairment. Generally, a stop should last no longer than is necessary to confirm or dispel the officer’s suspicions.
United States v. Jones,
Our holding that Long was not unconstitutionally detained disposes of his argument that his detention rendered his consent to search involuntary.
III. Sentencing
The district court adopted the quantity determinations set forth in the presentence report, which resulted in Long’s base offense level being set at level 38. Long argues that an inconsistency in the presentence report made it impossible for the government to have met its burden of proof regarding the amount of drugs for which Long was responsible.
The inconsistency that Long notes concerns the amount of actual (pure) methamphetamine for which Long was sentenced. The district court did not address this issue because Long did not raise it expressly at the sentencing hearing or in his objections to the presentence report. His objections at that time were to the quantity of drugs attributable to him apart from the drugs found in the ear, which would include the amount estimated from his admissions to investigators about the July and August sales, the drugs Albers sold while he was incarcerated during September and October, and the ten ounces that he and Albers were planning to buy with the cash seized. The lab report that was submitted as evidence at the sentencing hearing analyzed the drugs found in the car, the quantity of which Long did not object to. An argument raised for the first time on appeal is reviewed for plain error only.
United States v. Willis,
Even if reviewed under the standard applied to preserved claims of error, Long’s now-raised claim fails. The government must prove by a preponderance of the evidence the amount of drugs for which a defendant is to be punished.
United States v. Minnis,
The judgment is affirmed.