Wiretap Evidence In Drug Trafficking Cases
Drug trafficking is one of the most serious charges you can face that does not involve violence or sex. Prison sentences for a drug trafficking conviction can last decades. Drug trafficking cases often go through the federal courts, as they often involve complex plans to transport illegal drugs across multiple states, or even multiple countries. You have probably heard news stories about defendants receiving de facto life sentences for drug trafficking convictions, but this only happens when there are extenuating circumstances related to the crime. For example, the defendant might also have illegally possessed weapons, or perhaps the defendant also had prior felony convictions. People accused of drug trafficking, like all defendants in criminal cases, have the right to due process of law and to the presumption of innocence. If you are facing criminal charges for drug trafficking, contact a Pittsburgh drug crime lawyer.
How Do You Defend Yourself When Police Play a Recording of You Transacting a Drug Deal?
In investigations into drug trafficking operations, federal law enforcement agencies sometimes instruct undercover officers or confidential informants to wear recording devices and record their interactions with drug dealers. Police also sometimes wiretap the phone conversations of alleged participants in the drug trafficking network.
If prosecutors want to use wiretap evidence at your trial, it does not automatically mean that there is no room for reasonable doubt about your guilt. It might not even mean that the jury gets to hear the evidence. If you can persuade the judge, during the pretrial discovery phase of your case, that prosecutors wrongfully obtained the evidence, meaning that law enforcement did not have probable cause to do the wiretap, the judge will suppress the evidence and the jury will not hear it. In practice, it is harder to use this argument with wiretap evidence than, for example, drugs confiscated from your backpack during a chance encounter with a police officer. It is easier to argue that what you said on the wiretap does not prove that you made the drug deal. This argument works better if the recording just shows you bragging about how much weed you smoke, as opposed to saying that a certain person paid you a specific sum of money in exchange for drugs.
In the News
This month, Amanda Weidner or Johnstown pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court. For several months in the first half of 2021, police conducted wiretaps as part of their investigation into a cocaine and heroin trafficking network in Pennsylvania. The recorded conversations showed Weidner discussing drugs that she had bought and drugs that she had sold to other people. Weidner, 40, will receive a sentence in January. The maximum possible sentence for the charge is 20 years in prison.
Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges after police recorded your conversations about illegal drugs. Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.
Source:
justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/johnstown-woman-pleads-guilty-heroin-and-cocaine-trafficking
