Prince George’s County Volume Dealer Lawyer
The possession and distribution of drugs is taken very seriously in Prince George’s County, and as a result, the penalties for these charges can be quite severe. If you are charged with possession, distribution, and manufacturing of more than a certain amount of said drug, you could be charged as a volume dealer, which carries considerably higher penalties.
If you face volume dealer charges, consider contacting a Prince George’s county volume dealer lawyer. A capable drug defense attorney will be familiar with local drug policies and can do their best to defend you against these charges.
Defining Volume Dealers
A volume dealer is an individual charged with possessing, distributing, and manufacturing any type of drug with a certain minimum threshold amount. Usually, someone is charged with possession with intent. When there is a large amount; they automatically go to enhanced penalties, minimum of five years in jail, and a potential $100,000 fine. For example, 50 pounds of marijuana, 48 grams of cocaine, 50 grams of crack, a 28 grams of morphine, a 1,000 dose units of acid.
What Volume Dealing Charges Entail
Once those thresholds are present, the penalties and sanctions become much higher because the person is considered to be the higher end dealer as opposed to a lower level. These charges occasionally happen, but they are not very common. There is rarely someone who is just over the threshold. There are many low-level distributors, dealers, and users. The higher level distributors are generally prosecuted at the federal level. It is rare that state courts go into that, but it happens occasionally. When the state courts see them, they do take it very seriously which is why retaining a Prince George’s County volume dealer lawyer can be advantageous.
The investigations of volume dealers are a little different than the regular investigations. The reason is that volume dealers do not distribute to street level users. They distribute to other distributors, who distribute to others, who distribute to the street users. So, when the police arrest somebody in the lower level, the police arrest the user. The police do not care about the user; they care about the person who gave the drugs to the user.
If possible, the police officers use the lower level dealer to go after the distributor. Using an illustration of a tree, the user is the leaf, the dealer is the branch, and the volume dealer is the tree trunk and the base. The police want to cut-off as close to the source possible to cut everything else down the line.
Defining Continuing Criminal Enterprise
There are aggregations of amounts in volume dealing, where acts occurring within a 90 day period may be aggregated for purposes of determining the quantity for volume dealers. For example, the charge for volume dealing of marijuana requires 50 pounds. When someone is caught one day with 30 pounds of marijuana and a month later they are caught with another 30 pounds, that can be combined to make 60 pounds of marijuana for volume dealer charges and purposes.
Is This Similar to Drug Conspiracy Cases?
It is not similar to drug conspiracy cases. Conspiracy is just an agreement. It is important to have an experienced Prince George’s County lawyer in these cases because not only is someone dealing with a small sanction of felonies, they are dealing with minimum mandatory sentences for volume dealers which are different from the minimum mandatory sentences that were eliminated for subsequent offenders.
Importance of an Attorney
It is important to have an experienced Prince George’s County volume dealer lawyer in these cases because there is the matter of the five years minimum in the prison that a person faces upon conviction. The judge may think this person is the greatest person in the world, but regardless of that, the person is sentenced to five years in prison if convicted. When someone is dealing with the sanctions, the stakes are higher. Only an experienced attorney knows what to do, what not to do, and how to proceed, defend, and present. The experienced attorney knows what the police and prosecutor must do and holds them to the task.