Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
The entire state of Maryland has experienced an uptick in heroin use over the last couple years. But no city or county has seen such a dramatic rise as Ocean City. Law enforcement reported a 550 percent increase in heroin use in the city from 2011 to 2012. If the reports are accurate, more than 5 times as many people used the drug this year compared to last year. In response local cops, Worcester County Police, and Maryland State Police recently initiated a drug suppression operation entitled Operation Smackdown. A variety of drugs such as cocaine and marijuana were also targeted in the operation, but most of the arrests were for possession or sale of heroin.
The joint drug suppression operation yielded nearly 100 bags of heroin and indictments against more than 20 defendants on felony charges. One of the defendants that was arrested for possession with intent to distribute was found with over 60 bags that were packaged for sale. Many of these defendants are already in custody and facing bail as high as $300,000, while some of the suspects are still at large. Police have reported that most of the suspects are from Worcester County cities Berlin and Ocean City, but some also hail from Wicomico County and even neighboring Delaware. Cops used various tactics to carry out the large drug bust including search warrants, undercover buy operations, and surveillance. As is the norm for operations such as this, police undoubtedly employed at least one or even more defendants that were working for the state in exchange for leniency from the law. Typically a defendant that is arrested or under investigation for a drug offense will be given an opportunity to “work” with police in exchange for the cops agreeing not to submit the case to the State’s Attorney, or to submit lesser charges. These agreements are never set in stone, and all defendants should be weary of giving up their constitutional rights and placing themselves in danger by working undercover.
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The war on prescription drug abuse has been effective in decreasing the availability of commonly abused pills such as oxycodone and other narcotics. But as an unintended consequence, heroin use in Maryland has actually been on the rise. More people are using heroin, and state officials are reporting a significant jump in the number of deaths attributed to heroin overdoses in 2012. In fact, in the first half of 2012 heroin related overdoses increased 41 percent, with 205 deaths reported from January to July of this year compared to 145 in 2011 over the same time frame. There could be a wide variety of reasons for the jump in overdoses, which according to state officials signals a definite jump in use of the drug, but the leading factor is likely a recent crackdown on pill mills.
Various states have recently been modifying and in some cases eradicating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and manufacturing. As a result law enforcement has seen an uptick in shipping the drug from a state where it is legal to a state that has yet to join the legalization party. Despite recent modifications in the controlled dangerous substance laws, marijuana continues to be illegal under state law, and thus local and federal law enforcement have focused a great deal of attention on intercepting packaged drugs headed toward Maryland. Recently a large number of federal search warrants were unsealed in Baltimore, allowing the public to take a look inside the process and procedure of apprehending suspects that take delivery of packaged drugs.
The Thanksgiving holiday week is one of America’s favorite times of the year. During the day we eat our turkey, play and watch football, and take advantage of all the Black Friday shopping sales. But the Thanksgiving week and weekend is also known as a popular nightlife time. In fact, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the single most popular bar night of the year, and the Friday and Saturday after are not far behind. And whenever there is a party, you can be sure that police are not far behind to come crash it. The Maryland State Police recently made an attempt to crash the holiday week party by ramping up patrols across the state’s highways. Police were specifically targeting the roads in and out of popular nightlife spots and conducted almost 9,000 traffic stops over the holiday weekend. Out of the 9,000 traffic stops, nearly 100 resulted in an arrest for DUI. Close to 60 people were arrested or cited with drug offenses by state troopers, and over 100 were arrested for other crimes. Police also reported that 3 guns were confiscated during the traffic stops.
It was like stealing candy from a baby. At least it was for the police officers who recently arrested a Dundalk man for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Early in the morning hours employees at a Pennsylvania gas station observed the man placing unidentified candy bars in his pockets. The employees called 911 and law enforcement began searching the immediate area for a man matching the description. The man was spotted within ten minutes by local cops, who detained the Maryland man. After confirming the identification of the candy bar thief, police officers arrested the man for shoplifting. Search incident to arrest revealed two candy bars worth a total of $3.58. It is unclear whether the candy bars were king size, or if the gas station simply charges almost two dollars per bar. Nonetheless, the man would have likely avoided a trip to the local jail had he only been found in possession of candy, but that was not the case.
All Maryland police officers receive some sort of training in constitutional laws relating to search, seizure, and arrest. Constitutional law is by no stretch of the imagination the focus of any police academy’s training program. There is just not enough time and too little resources to put every potential police officer through a rigorous classroom curriculum on the search and seizure laws. Even if this training were available, there are no guarantees that each trainee would retain the information, and or use it in while working out in the field. This is not to blame police officers, as it is much easier to sit down and write an essay on constitutional law than it is to follow decades of case law and statutory restrictions during the heat of an arrest. Yes, it is true that some police officers intentionally conduct illegal searches and seizures, and make bad arrests, but good intentioned police officers face the daily challenge of making split decisions to protect life and property, and sometimes there is just no room for the constitution. Therefore police officers will make unlawful arrests, and execute unlawful searches and seizures, and this should be the first issue that any criminal defense lawyer should investigate in any criminal case. But this blog entry is dedicated to those people who wish to avoid ever needing a criminal defense lawyer to address an unlawful arrest. Knowing the basic search and seizure laws is not a foolproof way of avoiding an arrest. Each year thousands of drug prosecutions for substances such as marijuana and cocaine are carried out using evidence that was illegally seized. In addition, hundreds of DUI investigations are initiated after police make an illegal traffic stop. But knowing the law just may help you get out of a sticky situation, and it certainly cannot hurt.
The ongoing battle marijuana to legalize marijuana in America and in Maryland took another hit recently as Federal prosecutors have increased efforts to crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries. This latest crackdown effort came at the hands of Federal lawyers and court papers rather than with the search warrants and guns of the DEA and FBI. No arrests were made in any of the latest anti marijuana push, but a strong message has been sent across the country that the Feds are not ready to reverse their position on marijuana legalization. 
Annapolis police have arrested a 19 year old Maryland man in one of the largest drug busts in Anne Arundel County this year. Police received tips from community sources, as well as their own investigations in order to secure a search warrant that ultimately led to the seizure of nearly $30,000 worth of heroin, stacks of cash, and marijuana. Police also seized two handguns from the Maryland man’s house. Closer examination of the guns back at the Annapolis police department revealed that the firearms, a 9mm Beretta and a Smith and Wesson, were in fact stolen. Police did not reveal how much marijuana was seized from the Maryland residence, but closer inspection of the heroin revealed 140 grams of high grade heroin packaged for sale. Annapolis police are still investigating possible sources of the heroin. At the current time, police have not arrested a supplier, but more arrests stemming from this bust could be imminent. The Maryland man was arrested on 5 separate CDS drug counts including narcotics possession, possession of drugs with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail was set at $40,000, which was posted soon after the arrest.
A Maryland man was arrested for multiple drug charges after police used a search warrant to raid his Ann Arundel County home. Ann Arundel police executed the search warrant and discovered approximately 46 marijuana plants, which ranged from 5 to 6 feet tall. Police did not release the exact details of what led them to the 53 year old man’s home, but police did say that residents of the neighborhood had voiced to concerns to cops about possible drug activity going on in the house. According to police, the Maryland man was arrested for 9 drug charges including manufacturing marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana. Manufacturing marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute are both felonies, while possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor. Police did not indicate whether they had any concrete evidence that the Maryland homeowner was actually dealing drugs, or if the marijuana grow operation was simply for personal use. According to police, the marijuana would eventually have a street value of over 50 thousand dollars once the marijuana was harvested.
Enforcing Maryland marijuana laws is still a top priority for law enforcement agencies throughout the state, but public sentiment about the drug may be changing the way police look at marijuana cases. Marijuana arrests still account for the majority of all drug arrests throughout Maryland, and in most jurisdictions the ratio of marijuana arrests to other drug arrests is not even close. For example, in Montgomery County 67 percent of all drug possession arrests were for marijuana possession in 2011, and a staggering 74 percent of all drug possession arrests were for marijuana in 2010. These numbers would be even higher if all drug cases processed by Montgomery County Police were included, because a large number of marijuana possession defendants are not arrested, but rather are issued citations for the crime. In contrast, suspects caught by police with other drugs such as cocaine or heroin are almost always arrested at the crime scene. So far in 2012 the percentage of marijuana arrests to all drug arrests has fallen slightly to 63 percent. The question being asked now is whether this percentage will continue to drop as Maryland citizens and Maryland lawmakers become more tolerant of marijuana use.