california legislature—2023–24 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 1804
Introduced by Assembly Member Jim Patterson
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alanis, Chen, Davies, Gallagher, and Ta)
January 8, 2024
An act to amend Section 629.52 of the Penal Code, relating to crime. legislative counsel’s digest
AB 1804, as introduced, Jim Patterson. Crime: fentanyl trafficking.
Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or a district attorney to make an application, as specified, to a judge of a superior court, for an order authorizing the interception of wire or electronic communications.
Existing law authorizes a judge, upon a finding of probable cause as that an individual is committing, has committed, or is about to commit offenses involving a substance containing fentanyl or its precursors or analogs that exceeds 10 gallons by liquid volume or 3 pounds of solid substance by weight, to issue an order authorizing the interception.
This bill w ould reduce the abo ve-described amounts for an order authorizing interception to 1.67 gallons by liquid volume and 8 ounces of solid substance by weight of a substance containing fentan yl or its precursors or analogs.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 629.52 of the Penal Code is amended to line 2 read:
99 line 1 629.52. Upon application made under Section 629.50, the judge line 2 may enter an ex parte order, as requested or modified, authorizing line 3 interception of wire or electronic communications initially line 4 intercepted within the territorial jurisdiction of the court in which line 5 the judge is sitting, if the judge determines, on the basis of the line 6 facts submitted by the applicant, all of the following:
line 7 (a) There is probable cause to belie ve that an indi vidual is line 8 committing, has committed, or is about to commit, one of the line 9 following offenses:
line 10 (1) Importation, possession for sale, transportation, manufacture, line 11 or sale of controlled substances in violation of Section 11351, line 12 11351.5, 11352, 11370.6, 11378, 11378.5, 11379, 11379.5, or line 13 11379.6 of the Health and Safety Code with respect to either of line 14 the following: a
line 15 (A) A substance containing heroin, cocaine, PCP , line 16 methamphetamine, fentanyl, or their precursors or analogs where line 17 the substance exceeds 10 gallons by liquid volume or three pounds line 18 of solid substance by weight.
line 19 (B) A substance containing fentanyl or its precursors or analogs line 20 where the substance exceeds 1.67 gallons by liquid volume or eight line 21 ounces of solid substance by weight.
line 22 (2) Murder, solicitation to commit murder, a violation of Section line 23 209, or the commission of a felony involving a destructive device line 24 in violation of Section 18710, 18715, 18720, 18725, 18730, 18740, line 25 18745, 18750, or 18755.
line 26 (3) A felony violation of Section 186.22.
line 27 (4) A felony violation of Section 11418, relating to weapons of line 28 mass destruction, Section 11418.5, relating to threats to use line 29 weapons of mass destruction, or Section 11419, relating to line 30 restricted biological agents.
line 31 (5) A violation of Section 236.1.
line 32 (6) An attempt or conspirac y to commit an y of the line 33 above-mentioned crimes.
line 34 (b) There is probable cause to belie ve that particular line 35 communications concerning the illegal activities will be obtained line 36 through that interception, including, b ut not limited to, line 37 communications that may be utilized for locating or rescuing a line 38 kidnap victim.
line 39 (c) There is probable cause to belie ve that the f acilities from line 40 which, or the place where, the wire or electronic communications 99 — 2 — AB 1804
line 1 are to be intercepted are being used, or are about to be used, in line 2 connection with the commission of the of fense, or are leased to, line 3 listed in the name of, or commonly used by the person whose line 4 communications are to be intercepted.
line 5 (d) Normal investigative procedures have been tried and ha ve line 6 failed or reasonably appear either unlik ely to succeed if tried or line 7 too dangerous.
line 8 (e) Notwithstanding any other pro vision in this section, no a line 9 magistrate shall not enter an ex parte order authorizing interception line 10 of wire or electronic communications for the purpose of line 11 investigating or recovering evidence of a prohibited violation, as line 12 defined in Section 629.51.
O
99 AB 1804 — 3 —