Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 52.djvu/834

 52 STAT.] 75TH CONG. , 3D SESS.-CH. 532 -JUNE 20, 1938 and any such narcotic drugs and any other property designed for use in connection with such unlawful manufacturing, possession, control- ling, selling, prescribing, administering, dispensing, or compounding, may be seized thereunder, and shall be subject to such disposition as the court may make thereof and such narcotic drugs may be taken on the warrant from any house or other place in which they are concealed. (b) A search warrant cannot be issued but upon probable cause supported by affidavit particularly describing the property and the place to be searched. (c) The judge or commissioner must, before issuing the warrant, examine on oath the complainant and any witnesses he may produce, and require their affidavits or take their depositions in writing and cause them to be subscribed by the parties making them. (d) The affidavits or depositions must set forth the facts tending to establish the grounds of the application or probable cause for believing that they exist. (e) If the judge or commissioner is thereupon satisfied of the existence of the grounds of the application or that there is probable cause to believe their existence, he must issue a search warrant, signed by him, to the major and superintendent of police of the District of Columbia or any member of the Metropolitan Police department, stating the particular grounds or probable cause for its issue and the names of the persons whose affidavits have been taken in support thereof, and commanding him forthwith to search the place named for the property specified and to bring it before the judge or com- missioner. (f) A search warrant may in all cases be served by any of the officers mentioned in its direction, but by no other person, except in aid of the officer on his requiring it, he being present and acting in its execution. (g) The officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute the warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance. (h) The judge or commissioner must insert a direction in the war- rant that it be served in the daytime unless the affidavit is positive that the property is in the place to be searched in which case he must insert a direction that it be served at any time in the day or night. (i) A search warrant must be executed and returned to the judge or commissioner who issued it within ten days after its date; after the expiration of this time the warrant, unless executed, is void. (j) When the officer takes property under the warrant, he must give a copy of the warrant together with a receipt for the property taken (specifying it in detail) to the person from whom it was taken by him, or in whose possession it was found; or in the absence of any person, he must leave it in the place where he found the property. (k) The officer must forthwith return the warrant to the judge or commissioner and deliver to him a written inventory of the prop- erty taken, made publicly or in the presence of the person from whose possession it was taken, and of the applicant for the warrant, if they are present, verified by the affidavit of the officer at the foot of the inventory and taken before the judge or commissioner at the time, to the following in effect: "I, the officer by whom this warrant was executed, do swear that the above inventory contains a true and detailed account of all the property taken by me on the warrant." (1) The judge or commissioner must thereupon, if required, de- liver a copy of the inventory to the person from whose possession the property was taken and to the applicant for the warrant. 793 Issuance only upon probable cause; affi- davit. Examination before issuance of warrant. Facts to be estab- lished, etc. Issuance of warrant. Service. Taking of property under warrant. Return and inven- tory of property taken. Copy of inventory to each party.

�