Making Up Implausible Excuses During A Drug Bust Will Always Backfire
When you get arrested on suspicion of drug possession or drug trafficking, you have the right to remain silent. You are not obligated to respond to officers’ questions about the substances they found in your clothing pockets or in your car. This means that, before you tell the police anything, or before you enter a plea, you have the right to discuss your situation with a lawyer. Your defense attorney might advise you to use one of several defenses to persuade the jury that the police had no right to look for the drugs they found, or that the substance was not really drugs or that it did not belong to you. What you should not do is lie to the police in the moment of your arrest, even if the lie seems believable to you. If you are being accused of a drug crime, such as possession or distribution, contact a Central Florida drug crimes defense lawyer.
Defendants Who Should Have Exercised Their Right to Remain Silent
These are cases where the defendants, upon being accused of drug possession, offered some truly far-fetched excuses:
- In November 2019 police conducted a traffic stop in Fort Pierce because they saw the driver trying to discard something out the passenger side window. They found a bag containing a white powder that they suspected was cocaine. The driver told them that the bag of white powder must have blown into the car through an open window.
- It is legal to ride motorized scooters in Florida, but the scooters must have license plates. In December 2017, police stopped a man riding a scooter in a Key Largo park because the scooter’s license plate had been rendered illegible by spray paint. During a search, police found cocaine and methamphetamine inside the scooter. The scooter rider, Jesus Ginjauma, said that he knew that the substances were illegal drugs and that they had belonged to the scooter’s previous owner. He said he did not know how to dispose of the drugs without risking getting in even more trouble.
- In June 2019, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a traffic stop, and they noticed that the driver, Fabricio Jimenez, had a white powder on his nose. They tested the powder and determined that it was cocaine. During a search of the car, they found a backpack that contained 13 Xanax pills and 250 grams of marijuana. Throughout all of this, Jimenez insisted that the cocaine on his nose did not belong to him.
All of these defendants could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had exercised their right to remain silent instead of giving the first excuse that came to mind.
Let Us Help You Today
A suspicious substance in your car does not automatically mean that you are guilty, and neither does a positive result from a field test kit. If the police accuse you of keeping drugs in your car, a Florida drug offense lawyer can help. Contact FL Drug Defense Group in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.
Resources:
floridaman.com/tells-police-bag-of-cocaine-found-in-car-must-have-blown-in-from-the-wind/
floridaman.com/cocaine-on-his-nose-tells-cops-its-not-his/