LITTLE ROCK – A federal appeals panel on Monday overturned a lower court ruling that drugs seized during a traffic stop should be disallowed as evidence because state police allegedly held the driver for too long during a traffic stop.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 11 pounds of cocaine found in Omar Rivera’s vehicle should not have been suppressed because the driver’s actions lengthened the stop.

Rivera was pulled over Sept. 2, 2007, on Interstate 40 in central Arkansas for speeding and following too closely. It took 17 minutes before a drug dog sniffed the outside of Rivera’s truck.

The three-judge panel sent the case back to U.S. district court for further proceedings.

The panel’s ruling says state Trooper Victor Coleman asked Rivera questions about his destination and Rivera responded he was driving to Memphis, Tenn., to pick up his family. Coleman asked what Rivera’s family was doing in Memphis, and received “some inaudible and confused responses.” Rivera ultimately said his wife was visiting his mother-in-law.

Rivera told Coleman he didn’t know where in Memphis his mother-in-law was and that he would have to call to get that information. The trooper noted Rivera had two mobile phones.

After about 4 1/2 minutes of questions, Coleman asked Rivera if he could search the vehicle, and Rivera replied, “You can look in.” Coleman, who was traveling with his drug-sniffing dog, put Rivera in the front seat of the patrol car and called in Rivera’s information to the dispatcher. He learned about 11 minutes into the stop that Rivera had no warrants.

Coleman told Rivera he’d have to sign a consent form for the trooper to make the search. Rivera took several minutes to pore over a Spanish version of the form, for which he had asked.

Rivera declined to sign the form so Coleman had the dog sniff the outside of the vehicle. The dog alerted on the front of the vehicle in less than a minute. The opinion says the cocaine was found when the vehicle was taken to a wrecker yard for a more thorough search than could be performed at the roadside.

A grand jury indicted Rivera for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.