Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer

Florida police officers can get arrested on drug charges too

Nov 23, 2020 | Drug Charges

Law enforcement in Tampa regularly arrest people on drug charges. However, those officers are subject to the same laws as everyone else. Sometimes, police officers are themselves arrested by state or federal authorities and charged with major drug crimes like trafficking.

That is what happened recently to two Florida police officers after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigated them for six months. According to the DEA, a confidential source working with the agency approached an attorney back in May, posing as a member of a major drug cartel. Believing he the informant was involved in the drug industry, the attorney allegedly began conspiring with him to launder money and traffic drugs.

Undercover DEA informant, officers allegedly agree

A few months later, the informant asked the lawyer to use his contacts with police to run a license plate. The attorney agreed, and within a few minutes, passed along information from a department database. The DEA accuses a Miami-Dade police officer of providing the information. This allegedly led to a meeting between the informant, an undercover cop, the Miami-Dade officer, and his cousin, who is on the force in West Palm Beach. According to the DEA, the Miami-Dade officer agreed to transport cocaine, and the West Palm Beach officer promised to provide “personal security.”

The staged drug sale took place on Sep. 16. The DEA says that both officers were present and did what they had agreed to do. They were both later arrested.

Federal drug charges are always serious. There is no such thing as a misdemeanor at the federal level. If convicted on drug charges in federal court, you will likely be facing several years in prison, if not decades. To effectively confront the charges, you need to know your legal options. And to get that information, you need to consult a defense attorney who practices federal criminal law.

Archives

FindLaw Network