DrugBuyers.Com: I was arrested for ordering by mail

Well, the main thing to remember is the "transitory and furtive nature" of the activities being discussed that sometimes can result in issuance of a search warrant. Those were the exact words used by a federal appeals court judge in tossing out a possession w. intent conviction that resulted from a search based on information that was a week old.

Sometimes all it takes is minutes for evidence to disappear. There was one controlled delivery of illegal drugs and they waited ten minutes from the time the delivery was accepted to the time they knocked on the door and demanded entry. They found nothing in the search, which took hours. They had no physical evidence and the evidence locker had lost the package and its contents, so the guy was acquitted. The defense successfully argued that the testimony of the DEA agent who did the (often inaccurate) field test together with the apearance of the package and its contents was enough to support probable cause for an anticipatory search warrant (ASW), but without its confirmation by laboratory testing it failed to overcome reasonable doubt and yield a conviction.

An ASW is for a search that can ONLY be carried out if someone accepts delivery of the package. Anyone. If nobody is home, they will keep coming back. If delivery is refused and you never touch the package, they can't (legally) carry out the search.

The defendant was entitled to have the material tested by their own DEA-accredited laboratory, but that was impossible because the package had been lost. And they did not find anything in his possession either.

So now they don't wait minutes for you to open the package. Once you accept it, they probably won't even give you enough time to close the door.

They can go back in time as far as they want to establish an apparent pattern, but a search warrant cannot be issued because someone said (or pharmacy records and USPS/FedEX, etc.) that you had something x days ago. The information has to be recent and the judge needs to believe that whatever you supposedly had at the time of delivery is still in your possession, Anything less, and a good lawyer can get physical evidence tossed and then it's all fruit of the poison tree. Thass right. Even if they find something, they can't have waited too long to look for it.

Anything found in an illegal search can't be used against you. At least that's what the law says. What they actually do may be different. That's why lawyers can make big bucks. Appeals can be very expensive.

Trampy

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