Suffolk County criminal defense lawyer Glenn Obedin discusses the differences between a narcotics arrest and charge in the Federal system as opposed to the State system.
Most people are versed in what happens when you are arrested in state court on a narcotics charge, but it’s quite different in the federal system.
The first main difference in the federal system is that no one is ever arrested individually on a narcotics case in federal court. You’re always part of a larger conspiracy. Everyone gets charged in federal court under the conspiracy statute, and then also on the substantive charge, meaning what you actually did. You sold X amount of drugs on a certain day, but you’re also always charged with the conspiracy.
The reason that the federal government does that is because number one, they only handle large cases which involve a lot of people, a lot of defendants and a lot of drugs, and secondly, because it’s very easy to prove a conspiracy case.
The first thing that you need to understand is what conspiracy means. In the law a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime. In the case that we’re talking about it would be a narcotics related crime.
One of the big questions that I get from clients is “I see all these people named in the indictment with me, I don’t know any of them. All I did was sell small amount of drugs on a street level. And in the indictment they’re talking about kilos and kilos of cocaine, involving individuals that I’ve never heard of.” And the answer to that is simple. When you’re charged in a conspiracy, you don’t have to know anyone else directly charged in the indictment. You just have to know someone who put you in touch with this chain of people and whoever you get the drugs from is irrelevant as long as you know that you’re getting an illegal substance and that it’s coming from somewhere.
You don’t have to know the other people and the old saying, “If you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound”, that’s what counts in federal court. If you are selling drugs on the street and you’re getting your drugs from someone, it doesn’t matter how many people up the chain that person’s getting the drugs from, you’re in with everybody else.
So it’s a much more serious situation than in state court. In state court if you’re arrested selling a small amount of drugs on the street, that’s what you’re charged with, selling a small amount of drugs on the street. It’s a huge shock for defendants to find out that they’ve been charged in federal court and while they’re selling small amounts on the street, they’re charged in a conspiracy that’s selling hundreds of kilos of cocaine or crack, or heroin or whatever the case may be.
So that’s one of the first things that is very important to understand. So in closing, if you’re charged in any type of narcotics case in federal court, even if you think that it’s not a big deal because you’re only dealing in a small amount of drugs on the street, understand that it is a big deal, as is everything in federal court and you should immediately contact an attorney to help you.
And if you have any further questions about this or want any additional information, please feel free to contact Glenn Obedin at (631) 979-7777.