Articles Posted in Drug Offenses

Carlos J. Lanns, a 24-year-old New Jersey gentleman (and hereinafter, the “Defendant”), flew to Boston Monday…and into the arms of the law. He now stands charged with a number of Massachusetts drug crimes.

According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant arrived at Logan International Airport with 2.17 kilograms of cocaine, wrapped in plastic, in his shoes. Law enforcement values the drugs at an estimated street value of more than $200,000.

Prosecutors allege that the cocaine was hidden inside four pairs of shoes in his checked luggage. State Police arrested the Defendant shortly after he got off JetBlue Flight 862 from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Apparently, they had been alerted by US Customs and Border Protection.

While, the method used to find the drugs was not revealed “so as not to compromise ongoing interdiction efforts,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said, drug-sniffing dogs have been used in the past to check luggage from certain international flights.

At his arraignment, the Defendant is said to have seemed confused as his interpreter explained the proceedings to him. At his East Boston bail hearing, bail was set at $300,000 cash, although the Defendant had no prior record. The Commonwealth also requested that he be made to surrender his passport should bail be made as he allegedly has ties to the Dominican Republic.

It was so ordered.

The Defendant has pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking in more than 200 grams of a Class B substance. He faces a possible 15-year mandatory minimum state prison sentence if convicted…

…so far.

Attorney Sam’s Take On State And Federal Drug Trafficking

“Ok, Sam, what do you mean by ‘so far’?”

Well, it would appear that any criminal investigation, or investigations, into the Defendant and his activities has just begun.
Continue reading

As this Boston criminal lawyer begins his 52nd year of life, I return to a question which has plagued the jury system since its onset. Namely, what should a jury hear? Many people believe, as we discussed in my last blog, that the rules which govern what evidence can get before the jury is unfair. The thought is that the jury should hear everything and that, perhaps, the rules of evidence should not even exist.

As an attorney who has fought on both sides of the criminal justice trenches, I can tell you that I have been, in turn, gratified and frustrated by these rules…from both sides. However, most people view the system from the prosecutorial side and figure the biggest problem facing the criminal justice system today is crafty defense attorenys and overly-symnpathetic juries. These people tend to also believe that these inconvenient rules only serve to avoid justice and protect the guilty.

Perhaps you have always felt that way as well. Let’s bring your perspective regarding the system a bit closer to the target, shall we?

Like so many of your fellow-citizens, you have fallen on some difficult times of late. This has also brought the onset on some bad choices and habits.

You have also recently been arrested for Roxbury drug trafficking. You have learned that the Commonwealth turned its attention to you after Benjy Buyer told the officers who arrested him for possession that he had made the purchase of the cocaine on his person from you. When the arresting officer came to fit you for handcuffs, according to the resulting police report, the officer knew that Benjy was telling the truth because you “looked like a drug dealer”. You had a ten dollar bill and one envelope of matching coke in your pocket.

The fact is that you had purchased the coke from the same person that Benjy did; you did not sell to anybody.

This has been a particularly bad stretch of bad luck for you, by the way. Just previous to the drug arrest, you had broken up with your girlfriend, Felicia Flybynight. This took place after she showed up on your doorstep with a black eye. She told you that her other beau, Slugger, gave her the shiner when he learned that she was also seeing you. She was now remedying the error in her ways and leaving town with Slugger. However, before she left town, a friend of hers took a picture of her black eye and asked her what had happenned. “It’s all [INSERT YOUR NAME HERE]’s fault”, was her answer. The friend thereafter called the police and explained the situation to them.

After your arrest for the drugs, the police figured they might as well charge you for the assault and battery as well.

After all, they reasoned, many drug dealers are involved in domestic violence incidents.

Now…your cases are about to go to trial. Your lawyer tells you that the Commonwealth is offering “Guilty-Probation” to cover both matters. Should you go to trial and lose on either one of these cases, they say they will ask that you serve some time in one of their fine institutions.

What to do.

Attorney Sam’s Take On The Cases Sans Evidentiary Rules

Obviously, your first question to your Boston criminal lawyer upon hearing this news is, “Well, what are the chances that we can win at trial?”
Continue reading

As a Boston criminal lawyer, I have seen many joint agency criminal investigations. Sometimes law enforcement is looking for gun possession or trafficking. Recently, there was a large inter-state operation regarding the creation and distribution of child pornography. The one we discuss today involves Massachusetts drug crimes.

There has been a joint operation between Boston police and MBTA Transit Police targeting drug dealing according to authorities. It has yielded the arrests of twenty-four people in the Andrew Square area over the past weeks.

Like all such operations, this one has its fancy name. It is “Operation Inside Out ” (hereinafter, “OIO”). OIO was launched during the month of July. It targeted individuals who used the Andrew Square T station to conduct drug transactions. Police used surveillance and shared intelligence in order to make the arrests.

“The primary goal was to impart a positive impact on the Andrew Square area and its neighbors and put those who would conduct such activity on notice to a strong police partnership and presence,” said Boston Police Captain John Greland, commander of District C-6.

According to law enforcement, OIO not only rendered them involuntary guests but also amounts of cash and illegal narcotics, including heroin, crack, cocaine, marijuana, and prescription pills.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Joint Police Investigations

Joint law enforcement investigations enable police organizations to do what, in years past, was not able to be done. In old days, there were quibbles over jurisdictional issues which seemed to be more important than the actual police work.

Maybe it is because computers make it easier, but agencies, both state and federal, seem to be working much better together.

“Sam, let’s assume that I am not dealing in drugs, guns or WMDs…or any other illegal substance. What is this supposed to do with me other than making me feel safer?”
Continue reading

32-year-old Michael Makiej of Amesbury (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was in Newburyport District Court Monday. He has been charged with Massachusetts drug crimes and the drug at issue is marijuana. He maintains his innocence.

The Defendant’s problems arose, as often is the case, when a criminal investigation began without his knowledge. Federal agents informed state investigators that they suspected that a package containing marijuana would be delivered to the Defendant’s home. Amesbury police say it was to be delivered on Friday.

And so it was.

When the package was delivered, the Defendant was not home. However, the police used a drug-sniffing dog to fortify their suspicions about the package. Then, the police obtained a search warrant to search the package.

According to law enforcement, they found two pounds of marijuana inside. It was valued at about $5,000 to $8,000.

The police used this additional information to obtain another search warrant…this time to search the Defendant’s house. Inside, they say they found 25 marijuana plants of various sizes hidden in a room behind a false wall in a closet on Sunday.

The Defendant was then arrested and charged with possession of a Class D substance with intent to distribute and manufacturing/cultivating a class D substance.

After a bail hearing, the court set bail at $5,000.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Drug Possession and Massachusetts Search And Seizure

Often, when we hear about Massachusetts gun and drug arrests, there is no warrant involved. That is because it often happens on the Commonwealth’s mean streets. However, when possible, warrants are generally required in order for a search to be lawful.
Continue reading

Sometimes, as most police agencies know, things are not simply what they appear to be.

Take the case of Louis Gersh (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) for example. The Defendant ran a second-hand store on Warren Street in Arlington. Little did he know, however, he had been under a Massachusetts criminal investigation for the past month. He found out last week when he was arrested for Massachusetts heroin-related crimes. Theft-related charges to follow.
.
It was a joint investigation between Arlington and Somerville police. It included use of an undercover officer to gather evidence as well as information gained in connection to another arrest, made weeks ago, on the Concord Turnpike. It culminated in a search warrant. According to Arlington Police Captain Richard Flynn, law enforcement seized a “large amount of heroin” after executing the search warrant on the business, called “On Line Sales”, owned by the Defendant.

However, this entrepreneurship=gone-wrong does not end there.

The Defendant also allegedly runs an online auction site that is headquartered at said business. The Commonwealth claims that this is actually a clearinghouse for stolen merchandise.

Law enforcement credits the neighborhood with suspicion about the Defendant’s businesses. Ryan explains that “The neighborhood in East Arlington on Warren Street has really been very concerned about the presence of his storefront,” Apparently, a “stream of seedy people” was seen coming and going from the storefront.

The Defendant, arrested Thursday night, now faces charges of a class A drug distribution, as well as separate charges for doing so within a designated school zone.

Flynn said police might file additional charges of receiving stolen property against the Defendant, based on the search at his business. He claims that, “We’ve taken so much stolen merchandise out of there, it’s unbelievable”.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Criminal Investigations And Unlikely Targets

To say that the Defendant needs an experienced criminal defense attorney is to suggest the obvious. And yet, it is likely that he had no idea that he would be in this predicament.
Continue reading

This has been an upsetting week for Massachusetts law enforcement. Yesterday, we discussed how Boston’s prosecuting attorneys are upset with a particular judge. Now, law enforcement in general is upset with a ruling handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

The ruling primarily effects the Massachusetts search and seizure laws.

As we have discussed in the past, marijuana has been decriminalized. In other words, it is no longer a crime to possess a small amount of it. As also discussed, this meant that, in order to make an arrest regarding pot, the Commonwealth had to allege intent to sell the drug in order to make a “collar”. Massachusetts drug attorneys have gotten used to that.

Now, however, the Court has gone further.

In the past, if they stopped a vehicle on a MA criminal investigation, and they smelled marijuana, police treated it as probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed. They would then pull people out of the vehicle and, sometimes, search the vehicle. While the resulting charge might not be possession of the marijuana, the police would sometimes find something else to prosecute.

They can no longer do that on the basis of the marijuana odor alone. This is because while the smell might indicate smoking or possessing the marijuana, smoking or possessing it is no longer a crime. Thus, no probable cause.
Continue reading