Drug Case Investigations in Maryland

There could be several agencies involved in a drug case investigation including everything from local to state police or even the U.S. government. It depends on what is going on. If they have a task force set up at a specific point, they are usually trying to identify some form of chain. That means that the drugs start at the top, they have one person distributing it to two people, and then those two give them out to two each, and then those four give them out and it keeps going from there.

Every single government agency wants to get the people at the top of that. They want to find out who might be the head of a local area and who they distribute to. They usually try to use the people at the bottom to get people above them. If they set up extensive task forces that can sit and watch certain cases develop, they won’t bust the suspects immediately; they will sit and watch and that’s when you have charges that are more serious than just possession of one drug, possession of paraphernalia, or possession with the intent to distribute. Once you get into those higher charges, then you’re talking about a potential felony and they could put you in jail for a significant sum of time.

Length of Drug Investigations

They can vary; some take a week and some take a month, some take a year. Sometimes they are watching for even longer than that. There is no minimum timeframe for felonies. Misdemeanor charges have to be filed within a year, but felony investigations will go on for a very long time. If they’re looking for something specific, they truly weed it out.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Drug Investigations

In certain instances where an officer really did need a warrant, sometimes an individual will give them permission to search or freely give up information that would only have been discovered if the officer had been able to obtain a warrant. Those circumstances are very fact specific and very unique. People should not give away something that the police should have to find another way. If the police could not get a search warrant and thus could not serve one to the suspect, then they cannot get what they are looking for. If someone does not make the police do that, then they are giving up evidence and providing an admission, so those things can be used against someone.