You may be asking yourself how your Federal drug case ended up in Sherman, Texas. Sherman and Plano Federal prosecutors normally bring drug charges as “conspiracy charges,” because they don’t have to prove an actual drug deal, just a “conspiracy.” A conspiracy requires the Federal government to prove an agreement to distribute drugs and an act in further of the unlawful agreement by one of the conspirators, plus knowledge that it was unlawful. To bring a conspiracy case in the Eastern District of Texas, some connection to the Eastern District of Texas (but not a whole lot) is required. The agreement be made in, or an "overt act" take place in or through the Eastern District of Texas. This is why you need to call a Board Certified lawyer like Micah Belden to defend your Federal case now at 903-744-4252.
Federal conspiracy charges are very serious for many reasons, but the statutory mandatory minimum sentences make them more serious. In a conspiracy, you can be held responsible not only for the drugs you took part in, but for the drugs that were also “reasonably foreseeable” to you. Five kilograms of cocaine, two hundred and eighty grams of crack, 500 grams of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine or 50 grams of “ice” methamphetamine (80% or higher purity level), 1000 kilograms of marijuana, etc. get you a minimum of ten years to life in federal court. One-tenth of those amounts gets you five years to forty years in federal court. Federal time is day for day with a possibility of 15% off for good time, a year off for drug treatment, and the last six months of your sentence in a halfway house. The stakes are very high, so you must hire an extremely competence State and Nationally board certified criminal lawyer immediately before talking to anyone about your case, and to guide you through the process.
In drug conspiracy prosecutions, the Federal prosecutors will make very favorable deals with codefendants to testify against you, so you must hire a seasoned Federal trial attorney who can call them on it. The Federal sentencing guidelines allows defendants who cooperate against a person to get a large sentence reduction for doing so. In the Eastern District of Texas, it is normally a third to a half off of their sentence.
On the other hand, if you are dead in the water but have the ability to cooperate against others, it may be in your interest to cooperate to get one of the few “four-leaf-clovers” in the sentencing guidelines working in your favor. Other guidelines like safety valve can benefit you greatly, but you must hire a lawyer who can navigate you through the complicated United States Sentencing Guidelines minefield with precision.
I am one of the few local attorneys to have tried multiple drug conspiracy cases to a jury in the Eastern District of Texas, and one of the very few to have gotten such a case dismissed.
Call Micah S. Belden now at 903-744-4252