How to Beat Drug Trafficking Charges in Georgia 2024

Beating a drug trafficking charge is usually challenging, but it’s not impossible. The first, and most important step, is hiring an experienced drug charges defense lawyer. From there, it’s a matter of finding flaws in the police field work, and knowing how to work with the DA’s office.

What is Drug Trafficking?

Drug trafficking is a term that covers the many actions involved in moving drugs and illegal substances from creation to a completed purchase. This includes, but is not limited to, manufacture or cultivation, distribution, delivery, possession and selling illegal substances.

Why are police so quick to charge someone with drug trafficking? Drug trafficking is aggressively pursued across the globe. For this reason it’s no surprise that even local police want their share of notoriety for big drug busts. The Interpol website makes these claims, "Criminal networks traffic a range of drugs including cannabis, cocaine, heroin and synthetics such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.

This international trade involves growers, producers, transporters, suppliers and dealers. It affects all of our member countries, undermining political and economic stability, ruining the lives of individuals and damaging communities. The end-users and addicts are often the victims of a powerful and manipulative business.

Drug trafficking is often associated with other forms of crime, such as money laundering or corruption. Trafficking routes are used by criminal networks to transport other illicit products including firearms, uncut diamonds creating a convergence of crime."¹

Drug Trafficking Sentences

Whether it is State or federal charges, convictions for drug trafficking bring very harsh penalties. Per the FindLaw website, "Sentences for drug distribution and trafficking generally range from 3-5 years to life in prison. They may be substantially higher when large amounts of drugs are involved."² In fact, some drug trafficking charges can bring prison sentences of 40 or more years.

What To Do After Being Arrested for Drug Trafficking?

The first thing you should do is call our drug trafficking defense lawyers at 678-880-9360. Let us get control of your situation, and start working to achieve the best possible outcome.

From the moment you were arrested, the State has started the efforts to prosecute and incarcerate you. When this happens, you should avoid a common but huge mistake – DO NOT TALK TO THE POLICE! They tell you the reason why, Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law". You absolutely must use your right to remain silent, and advise them that you want to speak with your lawyer.

Before we get into how to beat drug trafficking charges it’s important to explain how your case moves through the justice system. More to the point, you need to understand how the DA’s office views drug-related cases.

The Prosecutor and Your Case

Drug Trafficking vs Simple Possession

The arresting police officers can make the call on the charges to be filed when you are booked into jail. The District Attorney (DA) will review the facts of the case, and decide to drop, add, or change the charges for which you will be prosecuted.

The decision to pursue drug trafficking charges vs. simple possession often comes down to a few particulars:

• What illegal substances are you accused of having? A district attorney is far more likely to be open to negotiating if you were caught with a small amount of marijuana vs fentanyl or heroin.
• Quantity in your possession. Can the amount of illegal substance(s) found in your possession reasonably be perceived to be more than the average person would have for personal use.
• Packaging and markings. Perceptions matter. If the illegal substances you are alleged to have had were in numerous packages, especially larger packages with markings, it will be hard to claim it was for personal use. If you had a 1/4 ounce bag of marijuana in a single baggie, that could be argued to be personal use (not drug trafficking).

As you can see, there are several case facts that set the tone for the level of difficulty of any drug-related case. Armed with the knowledge of the facts, your defense lawyer can have strategic conversations with the prosecutor to better gauge defense obstacles and opportunities.

If you had conversations with the police, you may have said things that can further complicate your defense. Your lawyer will use the discovery process to learn everything that the prosecution has and may use against you.

Building a Strategic Defense

Here are the typical options you have to try to beat or lessen the severity of drug crimes charges:

1. Represent Yourself, which is almost always has a terrible outcome for the person charged with crimes.
2. Hire an experienced drug crimes lawyer. Your lawyer can then discuss your case with you to consider:

1. Attempt to have all charges dropped which is sometimes possible if the prosecution has a weak case, or feels like the case is not worth the trouble or cost to prosecute.
2. Negotiate a plea deal which may be a wise move if the prosecution has a strong case with hard evidence, witnesses, and solid police work.
3. Demand a trial by jury which puts the accused in a highly unpredictable situation. This is especially true if the court for your case is in a very anti-crime area.

NOTE: Don’t think about jumping bail and trying to flee to another state or country. For a big drug trafficking case, the U.S. Marshals and other agencies will be actively looking for you. For lower level drug crime cases, they may not expend a lot of effort looking for you; however, you will be in every police system as a wanted fugitive. The police will eventually find you and the outcome will be a very harsh sentence.

How to Beat the Charges

The best way to beat any criminal charge is to find fault with the police field work and post-arrest conduct. A good defense lawyer has investigators (often ex-police) who will review the entire case files, often interview people involved, and work to uncover mistakes in the arrest and investigation procedures.

Mistakes by the police can be grounds to have charges dropped, reduced, or prosecuted with less strength.

Top 5 Ways to Beat Drug Trafficking Charges

Here are the top 5 ways to beat drug trafficking charges, using procedural and legal mistakes made by the police:

1. Facts Don’t Support the Charges Firstly, if the facts support the argument that anything alleged to have been in your possession was for personal use, the assertion that you were trafficking cannot be supported. This can lead to your case being dropped, or perhaps reduced to simple possession. If your case goes to trial, and you can convince the jury that anything you may have had was for personal use, then the jury cannot convict you of trafficking charges.
2. Unlawful Search & Seizure Illegal searches? It happens. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires probable cause to exist before police can conduct a search or seizure (unless they have a search warrant). Probable cause must be based on specific facts and circumstances, not a police officer’s hunch or suspicion. It requires only a probability or substantial chance of criminal activity, not an actual showing of any criminal behaviors.

   If there is no legitimate existence of probable cause (which can be argued), and an officer lacks a search warrant, they may ask you for permission to search you, your vehicle or your property. You should always say "I do not consent to any searches". If you do not answer the question, a police officer could argue that this failure to deny permission is effectively giving passive permission. Even if you think such a search is illegal or unconstitutional, never fight or interfere with the search as it could bring obstruction charges.

   If police perform any searches without probable cause, a warrant, or your specific permission, then any evidence found is almost guaranteed to be inadmissible for use by the prosecution.

3. Lack of Proof (Evidence)The burden of proof falls upon the prosecution. With regard to possession, your lawyer can present plausible deniability such as you were driving someone else’s car and had no idea what was in the trunk. In this case, the prosecution must prove constructive possession. For example, in this situation, constructive possession means that when the police discovered the drugs, the drugs were not physically on you, but there is a reasonable belief that:
   • you knew there were drugs in the vehicle
   • you had access to, and physical control over, the drugs

If the prosecution cannot prove constructive possession, you should not be charged with possession or intent to sell.

4. Entrapment Police are known to use informants or plant agents to pressure people to doing illegal acts. If it can be proven that you were coerced into trafficking drugs your attorney may be able to have the case dismissed.

   One strategic tactic is using your Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against standing against you. the prosecution will sometimes abandon charges rather than be forced to reveal the identity of a confidential police informant or law enforcement agent.

   The justice.gov says this about entrapment, "Entrapment is a complete defense to a criminal charge, on the theory that “Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person’s mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute."³

5. Violation of Constitutional Rights Police must respect and abide by your Constitutional Rights. You can invoke your Rights at any time; however, police are required to verbally advise you of your Miranda Rights. Your case can be thrown out if police violate your Rights. Common police mistakes are; coercing people into answering questions before being read your Rights, tricking a person into admitting they are guilty, and not respecting your right to have an attorney present during questioning.

   The Nolo.com website speaks to Fifth Amendment Rights and states, "Under the Fifth Amendment, suspects cannot be forced to incriminate themselves. And the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits coercive questioning by police officers. So, confessions to crimes that are coerced, or involuntary, aren’t admissible against defendants in criminal cases, even though they may be true."⁴

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Mounting a successful defense for drug trafficking charges requires a deep understanding of drug laws and the justice system. Our drug crime lawyers have decades of experience helping everyday people facing harsh prosecution. Give us a call at 678-880-9360 to arrange a confidential consultation with a top drug charges attorney.

CREDITS and FOOTNOTES

• ¹ Staff Writers, "Drug Trafficking", November 23, 2023, Available from Interpol
• ² Staff Writer, "Drug Trafficking and Drug Distribution", May 31, 2024, Available from FindLaw
• ³ Staff Writers, "Entrapment – Elements", January 22, 2020, Available from Justice.gov
• ⁴ Ave Mince-Didier, "Miranda and Involuntary Confessions", March 17, 2021, Available from Nolo.com
• Photo by Jorono, available at Pixabay