Drug Busts– Narcotics Surveillance
Law enforcement will in many cases focus on known drug areas by putting up surveillance from an undercover motor vehicle or other confidential location. The “eyes” or cop monitoring will wait for a dealer to begin selling, with backup units waiting in cars in the surrounding location. Within a couple of hours, police will confirm that a money transaction has occurred between the buyers and the dealer. The dealer may leave to retrieve the drugs from another area, such as a drainpipe or house, which will also be noted.
Once the drugs have been traded for money, the buyers will be tracked by the “eyes” until the backup unit stops and searches them. If the detained buyers are identified to have drugs in their possession, then the officer’s suspicions are validated and backup shifts into position for the “take down.” If the dealer is apprehended and has no drugs on their person, a case can still be made if they are found to have drug money. The site where the dealer retrieved the drugs can also be tracked and the drugs uncovered. Again, no drugs were actually seen on the dealer, but the prosecution has more than enough proof to substantiate the defendant guilty of possession with intent to deliver.
Drug Busts– Conspiring to Sell Drugs
Any business owner can tell you, it requires a lot of workers to maintain and run an organization– and drug businesses are no different. The dealer can not actually manage the entire operation, so he needs small time dealers on the streets to transfer the “product.” He employs individuals as “lookouts” making sure the police are not aiming to shut down the corner, the same as loss prevention officers at department stores. A person must supply the dealer with the drugs he is selling and offer him more drugs when he is sold out. And since no dealer wants to have excessive money on the corner in the event of an arrest, someone must take and store the money off the corner. Law enforcement observes their actions and arrests people working with the dealer as co-conspirators, even though none of them were in possession of drugs at the time they were apprehended.
Drug Busts– Traffic Stops
Iowa police come up with all kinds of reasons to stop vehicles in heavy drug trafficking areas, like the now infamous Interstate 40. Neglecting to turn on a signal, rolling through a stop sign, and a broken tail light are just some of the phony reasons police use to pull someone over if they suspect the driver has drugs. If the police move toward a car and see sneaky movements towards the floor of the vehicle, or if the driver seems very apprehensive, then the officer has a right to “fear for their safety.” They will then probably ask the driver for consent to inspect the car.
If the initial search of the car does not produce drugs, the driver can still be apprehended if he is found to have plastic baggies or wads of money on his person. Suspecting drugs are in the car, the policeman will then get a search and seizure warrant for the car, and will likely call out the K-9 unit. Upon presentation of the warrant, police inevitably find more baggies and the drugs hidden in the car. At the time of arrest, the car driver did not have any drugs on him, but the evidence is pretty strong that he effectively possessed the drugs with the intent to sell them.
Drug Busts– Postal Service Interdiction
Most drug dealers have couriers that send out drugs using the mail from source states. Often times, the person is not even mindful that the package contains drugs, as generally they are just advised to sign for the package and inform the dealer upon its time of arrival. The moment police in the source state obtain a warrant to open the package, they can confirm that there are drugs in it. Police then sequester the package at the post office, tape it up and send it to its desired destination; nonetheless, instead of a regular postman delivering the package, it is a law enforcement officer or postal policeman in disguise. At this moment, the police have obtained an anticipatory search warrant from a magistrate to serve on the source house, if all goes as arranged. When the receiver is paid and the package is taken to the dealer, the car is stopped and the package recovered. Each of the passengers of the car is captured and accused of possession with intent to deliver marijuana, conspiracy, and related offenses.
The package was not on either the driver or passenger at the time of their arrest and the driver was never seen carrying the drugs. But again, the proof of their possession and intent to deliver the drugs seized is relatively strong. They could possibly try to declare that they had no knowledge of what was in the package or the driver could dispute mere presence, but justifying a case such as this would be challenging.
Drug Busts– Search and Seizure
All drug dealers need to stock their drugs at some venue just before they are sold on the streets. Most of the time, personal tipsters or neighbors supply the police with tips about homes and other locations where drugs are being kept and sold. Surveillance is then set up and they monitor buyers as they approach the house and exchange money for drugs, while buyers are often stopped and searched for drugs. Covert officers and confidential tipsters also use pre-recorded buy money to make purchases from dealers selling from houses.
Once sufficient evidence has been collected to prove that drugs are being sold from a property, the police get permission to carry out a search and seizure warrant on the house. Once done, the drugs, drug paraphernalia, and pre-recorded buy money are taken from the property as proof of residence and other evidence of drug activity.
Later on, the undercover officer will determine the people who responded to the door and done business with the buyers and arrest him for PWID. He may have no drugs on him, but there will likely be proof in his home or apartment connecting him to the drug purchase operation, such as electricity bills and documents in his name at that address, a weapon in his possession, and pre-recorded buy money that was made use of hours earlier when a source made a purchase inside the property– all establishing strong direct and circumstantial proof that he was running a drug business from the place.
In Closing
You do not need to be in possession of drugs at the time of your capture or be seen supplying or selling off drugs to be charged with possession with intent to deliver. It is what you intend to do with drugs that you actually or constructively possess that ends up being a lawful problem. Regardless of the above cases which illustrate engaging evidence of guilt, that does not imply that there are no defenses to possession with intent to deliver charges in drug arrests.
Intent to deliver drugs is a very serious crime, the classification of which is often a felony; though, it is often determined by the number of grams of the drug that are in the individual’s possession or were delivered. For instance, a possession with the intent to deliver methamphetamine or cocaine is a class II felony that brings 1-50 years in prison. Nonetheless, according to the amount consisted of, those punishments can step-up to 3-50 years, 5-50 years or 20-life. Possession with the intent to deliver 50-100 kilograms of marijuana is a class III felony that carries 10 years in jail and a fine ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 approximately.
The probability of jail time may be high for these types of drug busts. That is the reason why contacting a dependable agency is necessary. Without right representation, your civil rights may be neglected and your trial end result unclear.
