Massachusetts Criminal Defense Attorney Blog
Shortly before eight o’clock yesterday morning police arrested Fausto Garcia was arrested at his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Then, police obtained a warrant to search his home. They searched the premises and found one hundred forty grams of cocaine and more than twenty grams of heroin. Both quantities are sufficient to justify the charges of Trafficking Heroin and Trafficking Cocaine. In fact, that is exactly what Garcia has been charged with doing. The case is currently pending in the Haverhill District Court. No doubt the Essex County District Attorney’s Office will present this case to the grand jury and obtain indictments. Ultimately this case will be prosecuted in the Essex County Superior Court that usually sits in Salem. The newspapers state that weapons charges have been filed against Garcia as well.
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So what does this mean for Garcia. Well he better hire an experienced Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer who handles drug cases. He is looking at a minimum mandatory ten year sentence on the cocaine case and another five years on the heroin case. The sentences can be higher than this but usually when someone gets convicted of multiple drug offenses the sentence on the less severe cases runs concurrent with the sentence on the case requiring a greater minimum mandatory. Anytime I get a case like this one I immediately look to see if the defendant’s constitutional rights have been violated. If so, I filed a Motion to Suppress the Illegal Search and Seizure. Most of the time when these motions succeed the case gets dismissed. In this case it is critical to know what the police observed prior to arresting the defendant and what information they had, if any that drugs were in his home. It is also important to learn who else lived in the home and from what location in the home the items were seized. Sometimes these cases are triable as well, particularly where there is a strong suggestion that someone other than the defendant had possession of the drugs.
Hiring a Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer who handles Major Drugs Cases such as this one is the first step you must take when fighting for your freedom. Call us at 617-263-6800 or contact us online if you have a case like this one.