A Maryland man has been issued criminal charges after police searched his home and seized money and guns as well as drugs. The charges include weapons violations, possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and two counts of possession of drugs other than marijuana.
The raid on the man’s home was carried out by a special police task force on narcotics, and it was part of an ongoing investigation of the sources and distribution of opiates in the area. Inside the home, an array of items, which police alleged were to be used for drug packaging, were found. These included scissors, a digital scale and some marijuana packaged in a small bag. The man also had several firearms in the house, including two 12-gauge shotguns and two handguns that were found loaded.
The man was previously convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, second-degree assault and wearing or carrying of a firearm. Because the weapons were closely accessible to the place that police claim to be a drug packaging area, the man is facing charges of firearms use in drug trafficking despite the fact that the guns were not apparently fired or used to threaten but based on their placement. Police also allege that they found a bag of heroin in a coffee pot in the man’s home as well as a substance alleged to be cocaine near a mirror and razor blade.
A conviction on drug charges can carry serious consequences. People who are in this type of a situation may want to have legal assistance when attempting to provide a defense against them. One possibility is to challenge the search that led to the seizure of the drugs as being a violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights.