On Dec. 6, Texas authorities reported that hundreds of doses of heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana were recovered following a traffic stop. Austin police said that they conducted a traffic stop on a 24-year-old man after he was supposedly observed driving recklessly across three lanes of traffic.
According to the report, the officer who pulled the man over became suspicious when he noted that the man had two phones. After the man reportedly denied the request to have his vehicle searched, the officer requested a K9 unit. Once the K9 unit was on the scene, authorities claim to have been alerted to the possibility that there could be drugs somewhere in the vehicle. Authorities then conducted a search of the vehicle.
During the vehicle search, about 210 doses of heroin, an unreported amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia associated with drug packaging were recovered from a backpack found in the vehicle. The man also reportedly admitted to being in possession of marijuana and handing it over to the police. He was charged with possession of controlled substances with intent to sell.
When some authorities are working to get a conviction, they may violate a person’s constitutional rights or fail to follow proper procedures when securing evidence. In these cases, a criminal law attorney may challenge the charges after conducting an independent investigation into the case. The attorney might challenge the traffic stop itself if there was no probable cause to pull the accused person over in the first place. The attorney may also be able to challenge the chain of evidence if some of the evidence went missing. Otherwise, the attorney may utilize another defense depending on what the evidence against the accused person is.
