MIAMI FEDERAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS

Drug Possession, Trafficking, Money Laundering and Conspiracy

It is especially crucial at the federal level to have a good criminal lawyer, or even legal team, on your side. One who has experience in dealing with the federal criminal system and the tactics used by law enforcement officers. Federal investigations and prosecutions are well funded, well organized and designed to gather evidence against their targets before an arrest is made. It is for this reason that it is equally crucial that you are totally honest with your attorneys from the Law Offices of Youngs and Associates, P.A. from the outset.
                                              
The FBI, ICE or DEA, for example, may have been conducting surveillance for over a year or more on your activities before arresting you. The federal government investigators will likely have wire taps, microphone coverage with resulting recorded conversations. Other individuals such as friends or your associates that you were dealing with may have already become informants. Your criminal defense lawyer will have only you, at the outset of his representation, to rely on to provide information. As the case progresses your attorneys may conduct their own private criminal investigation through private detectives and the discovery process, but you are always the best source of information. The last thing you want is for the prosecution to know more about the case than your federal defense lawyers because you were not completely honest with them.

Investigations into drug trafficking and related crimes are often long term and can involve hundreds of potential targets, seizures and arrests. Because of the extreme range of punishment for drug crimes, with possible exposure to life in prison, and the techniques used by federal law enforcement in these federal investigations, it is urgent that you contact our office immediately if you believe you or someone you care for is a target of a federal investigation.

Law enforcement officers from FBI, DEA, ICE, IRS, ATF and members of local Drug Enforcement Task Forces often arrest and interrogate suspects and make promises of leniency in return for cooperating with their investigation. However, NONE of these law enforcement officials have the legal authority to make legally binding agreements. Therefore, cooperating suspects normally do nothing to help themselves by speaking with law enforcement officers and usually only end up hurting themselves and those they implicate. Cooperating with law enforcement officials without a binding agreement from federal prosecutors amounts to nothing more than a confession and often directly exposes you to the full range of punishment.

Do not speak with any law enforcement official without the presence of a lawyer.
Federal, State, and local agencies share responsibility for enforcing the Nation's drug laws, although most arrests are made by State and local authorities.   Some facts relating to drug matters include the following:

In 2004 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) estimated that there were 1,745,712 State and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States. However, Drug prosecutions have comprised an increasing proportion of the Federal criminal caseload, rising to nearly 40%. There are thousands of highly committed and experienced, federal, state and local law enforcement officials engaged in drug investigations. At the federal level, the FBI, DEA, ICE, IRS, ATF, and U.S. Coast Guard are all involved in the "war" on drugs.  For this very reason it is important that you contact Michael Youngs, a former FBI Special Agent and prosecutor in order to defend your drug possession or trafficking case in a knowledgeable and tactically correct manner.

An accused defendant in a drug case must know what he or she is facing.  The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) is a federal drug enforcement program that focuses attention and resources on the disruption and dismantling of major drug trafficking organizations. OCDETF provides a framework for federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to work together to target well-established and complex organizations that direct, finance, or engage in illegal narcotics trafficking and related crimes. (Related crimes include money laundering and tax violations, public corruption, illegal immigration, weapons violations, and violent crimes.) The program has been in existence since 1982 and operates under the guidance and oversight of the Attorney General. Utilizing its resources and expertise of its 11 member federal agencies, along with support from its state and local law enforcement partners, OCDETF has contributed to the prosecution and conviction of more than 44,000 members of criminal organizations and resulted in the seizure of cash and property assets totaling more than $3.0 billion.

The Executive Office for OCDETF supports the work of over 2,500 federal agents and prosecutors and approximately 6,000 state and local law enforcement officers who participate in OCDETF cases.

Prison sentences imposed increased from an average of 55.1 months during 1988 to 58.7 months during 2003. For drug offenses, prison sentences increased from an average of 71.3 months to 81.4 months; for weapons offenses, sentences imposed increased from 52.3 months to 83.7 months. Under the Sentencing Reform Act, defendants are required to serve at least 87% of the prison sentence imposed.
Approximately 92% of drug defendants adjudicated in Federal Court during 2003 were convicted. Twenty-eight percent of convicted Federal drug defendants received a reduced sentence for providing substantial assistance to prosecutors.

These are important facts for your consideration when you are facing drug related charges.  You need the experience and knowledge of our attorneys to guide you and protect your rights.  The federal government is well prepared and generally speaking has the evidence they usually need to convict those accused of possession or distribution when they finally decide to interview you.  Therefore, your best possibility for a favorable outcome in these matters is to consult our experienced attorneys that have a special advantage of having both prosecuted and defended federal and state criminal cases. Call the Law Offices of Youngs and Associates, P.A., your experienced

                                                                                                                      
Major federal criminal investigations can take many months as prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, and the grand jury review enormous volumes of highly detailed but often ambiguous evidence in the form of wiretap recordings and transcripts, bank records, physical evidence, informant information or surveillance data. In the most complex drug investigations, attention will eventually focus on a few principal targets for prosecution on the most serious charges. At the same time, any number of other persons whose names surface during the investigation can be indicted as participants in a complex conspiracy to violate the law.

If you have come under investigation in a complex drug case, or if you have been indicted as a member of a conspiracy to commit any other federal or state offense, contact an experienced Miami Federal Criminal Defense Attorney at the Law Offices of Youngs and Associates, P.A.. Our approach to the defense of persons implicated in complex criminal conspiracies is focused on avoiding or minimizing your exposure to criminal liability. A conspiracy is nothing more than an agreement between two or more individuals to commit an unlawful act, with at least one overt act committed by one of them in furtherance of the objective of the conspiracy. Our goal in defending persons implicated in complex conspiracies is to demonstrate to the prosecution at the earliest possible stage that your involvement in a criminal conspiracy will be difficult or impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is often possible for a person to get caught up in a conspiracy investigation without having agreed to its purposes or even being aware of its objectives. For example, a friend of a friend of a major drug dealer might deliver a car to another friend of the friend without any idea it will be used to smuggle contraband across international boundaries.

Even when there is some evidence to suggest that a minimal activity player in a conspiracy to manufacture or distribute drugs had some awareness of the criminal purposes of the conspiracy, an energetic defense prior to indictment may help you remain what is known as an unindicted co-conspirator: still a person of interest to the prosecution, and quite possibly a witness for the government, but not facing any criminal charges

There is a final fact which you as the accused should know.  Federal prosecutors often seek money-laundering, conspiracy and tax fraud charges against prospective defendants in complex conspiracy investigations involving drug trafficking and fraud crimes for two practical reasons. First, the possibility of a conviction on an additional charge provides the government with that much more leverage in plea negotiations. Second, it allows serious felony charges to be brought against persons whose connection to a drug or fraud conspiracy is attenuated at best.  Sometimes, money laundering and tax evasion charges are the most valuable tool for the government to use as a means of compelling cooperation in the prosecution of someone else.

If you have been interviewed, indicted or arrested on a drug charge call the Law Offices of Youngs and Associates, P.A. immediately at (866) 570-9499.