Rоberto Ramos and Elsa Gonzalez appeal their joint convictions of possession of cocaine with intent distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (1982) and of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (1982). The sole error they urge for reversal is the district court’s 1 refusal to suppress approximately four pounds of cocaine seized pursuant to their warrantless arrests. Ramos and Gonzalez contend that the arresting officers lacked probable cause beсause the information provided to the police by the principal informant was sketchy and uncorroborated. We affirm the judgments of conviction.
As Ramos and Gonzalez challenge the adequacy of the information possessed by the police before their arrests, we will relate that information in some detail. In the fall of 1985, Officer Gerard Bohlig of the St. Paul Police Department assisted in the investigation of a cocaine distribution organization in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area headed by one Magda Llovet. Llovet was convicted and imprisoned at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center. In November 1985, Bohlig received a tip from a confidential informant, referred to in the record as Informant No. 1, that Llovet was still conducting her cocaine operation from jail. Informant No. 1 spoke with Bohlig by telephone or in person about twice a week from November until the arrests of Ramos and Gonzalez in March 1986. He told Bohlig that he had personal knowledge that Llovet carried on her operation with the assistance of one Manuela Flores and a man named Ramos. Flores, according to the informant, was the liaison between Llovet, Ramos, and various other members of the organization. Informant No. 1 also gave Bohlig Flores’ telephone number. Bohlig checked the Ramsey prison vistor records and confirmed that an individual named Flores regularly visited Llovet during this time period. Flores’ telephone *1393 number was alsо confirmed independently by another informant.
Informant No. 1 told Bohlig that Ramos brought four- to six-pound quantities of cocaine to St. Paul from Miami, Florida on quick turn-around flights about every two weeks. He described Ramos to Bohlig as being short, about 45 years old, light-skinned, and Hispanic. He said that Ramos did not speak English. He also said that Ramos traveled with a female companion and that when Ramos was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, he stayed at either the Holiday Inn near the State Capitol Building or at the Quality Inn near the St. Paul Civic Center. Informant No. 1 told Bohlig that he had seen Ramos in a hotel in St. Paul with cocaine and customers present.
At the time Bohlig was talking with Informant No. 1, Sergeant Freichels of the St. Paul Police Department was told by another confidential informant, who had in the past provided information which led to a number of arrests and convictions and to the seizure of large quantities of cocaine, that Magda Llovet was continuing her cocaine distribution operation from jail. Informant No. 2 also told Freichels that Llovet was working through an individual named “Manuela.” He gave Freichels the same telephone number for “Manuela” as Informant No. 1 had given Bohlig for Manuela Flores.
On March 3, 1986, Informant No. 1 told Bohlig that Ramos and his female companion were at the Holiday Inn near the State Capitol Building, in Room 510. By the time the police arrived, Ramos and his companion had departed. A search of Room 510 turned up two discarded airline bоarding passes and tickets showing a March 2,1986 flight from Miami to Minneapolis-St. Paul by Mr. Roberto Ramos and Mrs. Elsa Ramos.
Immediately thereafter, Bohlig’s superi- or, Lieutenant Dugan, contacted an employee at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, and asked that this individual alert the police if Roberto Ramos purchased a ticket from Miami to Minneapolis-St. Paul. This citizen informant had provided Dugan with information in the past, and Dugan considered him reliable. On March 28, this informant reported that Ramos and Mrs. Coridao Gonzalez were traveling together on Northwest Flight 719 to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Airline employees verified their presence on the plane and described Ramos as a light-skinned Hispanic, short, in his 40’s, and wearing a dark suit. His companion was described as a middle-aged woman with reddish hair wearing slacks and a floral print blouse. The two were scheduled to return to Miami on March 30.
Bohlig and one of his fellow officers waited at the arrival gate and observed the passengers departing from Flight 719. Only two passengers matched the descriptions of Ramos and Gonzalez, and Bohlig followed them from the gate to the baggage area, where they retrieved a suitcase, and then to the taxi stand, where they hired a cab. Bohlig followed their cab, supported by approximately five additional police cars and ten officers. The police stopped the cab as it entered St. Paul on Chestnut Street, which leads to the area of the Holiday Capitol Inn and Quality Inn identified by Informant No. 1. Evidently, some of the officers had their guns drawn at the time the police pulled over the cab.
A deputy sheriff patted Ramos down after Ramos climbed out of the cab. He testified at the suppression hearing that he felt a solid object around Ramos’ torso which he thought could be a form of nonmetallic body armor. The deputy opened Ramos’ shirt and discovered an elastic girdle-type sheath. The sheath had a number of sewn-in compartments containing packages of a white powdered substance that proved on later analysis to be cocaine. Additional packets of white powder were discovered strapped to each ankle.
Gonzalez was also patted down. The police discovered a similar girdle-type sheath containing packets of cocaine around her waist. Additional packets of cocaine were found about her ankles. In all, the police seizеd about four pounds of cocaine from Ramos and Gonzalez.
Before trial, Ramos and Gonzalez moved to suppress the cocaine, contending as they do here that the police lacked probable *1394 cause to stop the cab and arrest them. Both the magistrate 2 and the district court on de novo review of the suppression hearing record and the magistrate’s report and recommendation determined that the arrest was supported by adequate probable cause. See United States v. Ramos, 3-86-CR-51, slip op. at 7 (D.Minn. July 25, 1986) (denying motion to suppress evidence). Ramos and Gоnzalez were convicted, after a bench-trial on stipulated facts, of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Ramos was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms of imprisonment; Gonzalez was sentenced to two concurrent one-year terms of imprisonment. This appeal followed.
We review the district court’s finding of probable cause to make the warrantless arrest of Ramos and Gonzalеz under the clearly erroneous standard.
United States v. Wajda,
Ramos and Gonzalez argue that the information given the police by Informant No. 1 is too sketchy and indeterminate to “warrant a prudent man in believing,”
Beck,
*1395 The district court found that the initial stop of Ramos and Gonzalez was “based upon more than adequate probable cause.” Ramos, slip op. at 5. In arriving at this conclusion, the court noted that some of the information provided by Informant No. 1 — the continuation of Llovet’s drug operation while in jail and the first name and phone number of Flores — was corroborated by Informant No. 2. Further corroboration came from the police investigation of Informant No. l’s tip that Ramos and his traveling companion were at the Holiday Inn on March 3, 1986; the police verified that Ramos stayed at that hotel, traveled with a female companion, and made quick, turnaround flights from Miami to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Finally, the police were able to verify Informant No. l’s physical description of Ramos when he and Gonzalez arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport under Bohlig’s observation. The court found that the interlocking details of the information given the police, considered in light of the corroboration of some of these details by police investigation, provided “more than an abundance of probable cause to believe [Ramos and Gonzalez] were engaged in criminal conduct at the time of the stop on March 28, 1986.” Id., slip op. at 6.
We agree with the district court’s conclusion. This case is unlike
Florida v. Royer, supra.
In
Royer,
the defendant was initially stopped because his appearance and actions fit the “drug courier profile,”
i.e.,
he appeared to be nervous, he paid for his ticket with cash, he was traveling to a “target” city, he was carrying apparently heavy bags, and he filled out the luggage identification tags with only a name and a destination, rather than an address and telephone number.
Royer,
We likewise reject the argument that
Draper
and
Gates
compel us to reverse the district court. Ramos and Gonzalez contend that the knowledge and information possessed by Bohlig and his fellow officers did not rise to the level of that held sufficient to support probable cause in
Draper
and
Gates.
While
Draper
and
Gates
offer considerable instruction аnd guidance for our resolution of the case, they do not support the conclusion urged by Ramos and Gonzalez. In
Draper,
the informant gave to the police a detailed physical description of Draper and his clothing.
5
*1396
Draper,
The Supreme Court in
Gates
characterized
Draper
as “the classic case on the value of corroborative efforts of police officials.”
Gates,
The Court observed that the anonymous letter standing alone could not support probable cause.
Id.
at 227,
probable cause does not demand the certainty we associate with formal trials. It is enough that there was a fair probability that the writer of the anonymous letter had obtained his entire story either from the Gateses or someone they trusted. And corroboration of major portions of the letter’s predictions provides just this probability.
Gates,
We recognize that “because of the myriad of unique factors that may go into a determination of probable cause, each case must be decided on its own facts; one decision seldom disposes of the next.”
*1397
United States v. Sumpter,
In
Draper, Gates,
and this case, therefore, the tip or informant described in some detail the method by which the defendants conducted their illegal operations.
6
In each case, police investigation confirmed “innocent”
7
details of the tips, including physi
*1398
cal descriptions of and predictions of future actions by third parties. Such future actions are “ordinarily not easily predicted,”
Gates,
We affirm the convictions of Roberto Ramos and Elsa Gonzalez. 8
Notes
. The Honorable Donald D. Alsop, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.
. The Honorable Janice M. Symchych, United States Magistrate for the District of Minnesota.
. Ramos and Gonzalez also argue that the police did not have enough information or knowledge to support a valid
Terry-type
investigative stop, and that in any event the circumstances under which the police initially stopped them — the presence of six or seven police cars and a dozen police officers, many with drawn weapons— amounted to a full-blown arrest, citing our decision in
United States v. Pajari,
. Ramos and Gonzalez also matched certain aspects of the drug courier profile, particularly in that they made frequent turn-around flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul from Miami. This fact is relevant both to the existence of a reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify an investigatory stop,
Royer,
. The informant told the authorities that Draper "was a Negro of light brown complexion, 27 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed about 160 pounds, and that he was wearing a light colored raincoat, brown slaсks and black shoes.”
Draper,
. We see no significant difference among the statements that Draper would be arriving on a train from Chicago carrying drugs, that Lance Gates would be driving back to Bloomingdale carrying drugs in a car left by his wife in Florida, and that Ramos and his female companion would fly to Minneapolis-St. Paul on a quick, turn-around flight from Miami carrying drugs and would stay at one of two hotels. Ramos and Gonzalez strenuously assert that Informant No. l's failure to provide an exact date for the March 28 trip distinguishes this case from
Draper
and
Gates.
Yet the tip in
Gates
only stated that the drug run would occur "in a few days,”
Gates,
. Ramos and Gonzalez repeatedly comрlain that the police were unable to verify any
illicit
activity on their part prior to arresting them. They suggest that it is necessary for a suspect to behave suspiciously before there is probable cause to make an arrest. It is certainly true that furtive gestures, assumed names, and flight from police are all relevant to the existence of probable cause.
See United States v. McGlynn,
. Counsel for Gonzalez strenuously urged at the oral argument of this case that even if probable cause existed to arrest Ramos, the arresting officers had nо probable cause to arrest Gonzalez because Informant No. 1 had said nothing about her save that Ramos “traveled with a female companion.” However, given the fact that the police were aware that Informant No. I had predicted that Ramos would be carrying four to six pounds of cocaine, that Gonzalez had reserved her ticket with Ramos, and that the two were traveling together, we think that the arresting officers would have been derelict in their duty to have failed to arrest and search Gonzalez.
See Swayne,
