OMAHA - A three-judge federal appeals court panel has upheld a ruling that the seizure of a bag containing 22 pounds of cocaine at an Omaha bus station was illegal.

Court documents show Christian Alvarez-Manzo was a passenger on a Greyhound bus that stopped in Omaha on Oct. 31, 2007. A Nebraska State Patrol investigator removed Alvarez-Manzo's bag from the bus's cargo area because he found its appearance suspicious. The lower court ruled that he seized the bag without reasonable suspicion.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also agreed that the investigator's removal of Alvarez-Manzo from the bus for questioning violated the man's rights.

Nebraska State Patrol spokeswoman Deb Collins said Monday that the agency will study the ruling "to determine future direction in these types of cases." She also defended the investigator in the case.

"This ruling is not about the investigator's conduct," Collins said. "He behaved in a reasonable manner as he understood the law to be. His actions were supported by a state judge who issued the search warrant and a U.S. magistrate who admitted the evidence as properly seized."

Alvarez-Manzo has been charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and his trial on that charge is scheduled to begin later this month.

U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Joe Stecher said his office is considering whether to request that the full 8th Circuit court hear the appeal. If it opts not to appeal further, Stecher said the case will be dismissed "because we won't have any evidence."

Alvarez-Manzo's attorney was not available for comment.

The appeals court referenced a similar case in which a three-judge 8th Circuit appeals panel ruled that the seizure of another man's bag at the same Omaha bus station involving the same investigating officer in 2002 was illegal. However, the full appeals court later reversed that ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Other drug seizures at the Omaha bus station have also been the subject of court challenges in the last decade.

In 1999, the Nebraska Court of Appeals reversed lower court decisions in two separate cases involving drugs found during searches at the Omaha bus station. In both of those cases, the appeals court ruled that it's OK for police to randomly squeeze luggage on buses to expel air that can be sniffed for signs of drugs.