Selling or Transporting a Controlled Substance – Health & Safety Code 11352
HS 11352 covers a large variety of drug-related activity. Anyone who is selling drugs, transporting drugs — even giving away medications to other people — can be charged and will be facing some severe penalties along with jail time, prison time, having to register as a narcotics offender, probation, and parole.
There's a whole host of different things that prosecutors and judges can punish a person who is convicted of sales of narcotics.
Sometimes, it's a problematic distinction between selling narcotics and just possessing the narcotics. Sometimes, people are doing both. They are selling the drugs to support a habit that they have, and they're also using it.
So, there are several different factors that the police look at when deciding whether there is a drug sales case, and these factors are important because the difference between a sales case and a strict possession case can be huge as far as the penalties you could face and the stigma on your criminal record.
Weight of Drugs, Scales, Baggies, Weapons, Cash
They're going to be looking to see if they can catch you selling it or transporting a massive amount of drugs. Then you'd have a tough road regarding arguing against a sales charge.
But other factors that they look at are whether you have scales to weigh the drugs, whether you have a bunch of baggies to package the drugs, and whether you have a weapon to guard the drugs.
Other factors that are indicative of somebody who is selling drugs — are large amounts of cash — what they call pays-and-owes slips, where you've got a record of the people who owe you money related to drug transactions.
So, there's a whole slew of things that will be looked at. Sometimes, some of them are present; sometimes, there's none of them present, and sometimes, they're all present just depending on the circumstances of a particular drug offense.
That's why it's crucial to have a skilled drug crime lawyer on your side. With the right defense, you can significantly improve your chances of avoiding a possession for sales or a sales charge and potentially reduce your charges to a straight possession charge.
If there are facts to support the argument that you're just possessing the drugs for your personal use versus trying to sell the drugs.
Smuggling Charges and Border Arrests
This is a big one because a lot of times, people who get arrested at the border are carrying large quantities of drugs. It doesn't make sense to carry a few medications across the border. Usually, the people who are doing this are the individuals who are carrying large amounts of drugs.
A lot of times, the people who are shipping the drugs are not the people who are benefiting the most. They're not the suppliers. They're not the people making the most money out of it because they are smart enough not to risk being arrested and jailed for long periods because these smuggling charges at the border are so severe.
Mules to Move Drugs Across Border
They use what are called mules. People who are being paid $1,500.00 or a small amount of money to move the drugs. Often, these people don't even know what they're driving. They realize they're drugs, but they don't know what kind of drugs, and it's a sad scenario when they get caught at the border for this type of behavior.
One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the federal prosecutors near the border in San Diego have what's called a fast track.
This system is designed to expedite the handling of drug cases due to the high volume of drugs moving through the border. They offer reduced sentences to those who plead guilty quickly, allowing them to move these cases along and prevent the system from becoming overwhelmed.
Otherwise, they would be clogged up with too many cases. A lot of people and society don't realize that. And the technology that's now available at the border is crazy.
They've got all sorts of x-ray devices that they can put a car through, and they can see hidden compartments in vehicles, and they can see millions of dollars worth of drugs moving through the border, and they seize millions of dollars. The technology that's now available at the border is advanced and extensive, allowing law enforcement to detect and intercept large quantities of drugs.
Federal Drug Charges
So, drug possession and arrests at the border are severe and are taken very seriously by the government, and a lot of times when you get arrested for these crimes, you're looking at federal charges which carry ten-year mandatory minimums; twenty-year mandatory minimums depending if you have a prior conviction related to a drug sales case.
Even at the state level, if you get a new federal case, you could look at twenty years in custody. If you've got guns involved, you could be looking at even more time in custody.
So, if someone's going to take the risk to go through the border with drugs — and if you have a lot of drugs, you put yourself in the wrong position. Some things could be done to help you, especially if you're a first-time offender.
You don't have any criminal record, or you have a regular job, or you were just trying to make some extra money, which is a lot of people that are going through the border with drugs because they realize that these people are good.
They just got themselves tangled up in drugs to make money, and the people who are making the most significant money are not these people. Still, they're using these people who are in challenging financial situations, have small children, have no money coming in, and they're desperate.
Prosecutors and judges understand the complex circumstances that can lead to drug-related offenses. With the right approach, it's possible to avoid the severe penalties that come with a ten-year federal prison sentence.
Fighting Drug Sales or Transporting Cases
Things that you would expect to find and defense attorneys can use to argue that it's just a straight possession case would include drug paraphernalia used for utilizing drugs, such as syringes and pipes and other instruments that can be used to smoke or inject narcotics would certainly be indicative of somebody who was a user versus a seller.
The one big argument that I see all the time is the number of drugs. The police always claim that the amount is too much for somebody just using it for personal use.
And, of course, they ignore that sometimes people want to get a decent enough amount so they don't have to keep going back and forth and risk being apprehended by law enforcement.
So, there are arguments to be made when it comes to these drug cases. Fortunately, a lot of proposals have recently passed that have benefited those individuals who get charged with drug-related offenses, especially sales, possession for sales, transportation, and even personal use. You have a strong argument now to keep people out of prison.
They don't want the prisons clogged up, certainly not with drug users, and even people selling drugs would have a better argument to stay out of jail than somebody committing a violent felony.
You have a fighting chance regarding these drug cases. Pick up the phone. Make the call. I'm happy to sit down with you and develop a game plan to protect your rights, freedom, and reputation.
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