ANNE ARUNDEL, CALVERT, CHARLES, ST. MARY’S & PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTIES.
Distribution & Trafficking Defense | Haskell & Dyer
A Trafficking Charge Can Mean Mandatory Prison. The Defense Has to Start Today.
Distribution and trafficking carry the heaviest drug penalties in Maryland, including mandatory time once the weight crosses certain lines. These cases are built over months by the State. They demand a detailed, aggressive defense from day one.
Why Time Matters
The State has been building this case. You need to start building yours.
Trafficking cases often grow out of long investigations, with surveillance, informants, and search warrants stacked up before the arrest. Once the weight hits certain thresholds, mandatory minimum prison time comes into play, time a judge cannot suspend. The earlier the defense starts, the more there is to challenge.
What You're Facing
Distribution and Trafficking Are Not the Same
Both are felonies, but the weight involved can push a case from serious to severe.
Felony
Distribution
Selling, delivering, or transferring a controlled substance, or possessing it with that intent. It is a felony with serious prison exposure, even without large quantities involved.
Enhanced Felony
Trafficking & Volume Dealing
Once the amount crosses certain thresholds, the case becomes a volume or trafficking charge, with enhanced penalties and mandatory minimum prison time that a judge cannot waive.
How These Cases Are Built
The Evidence the State Relies On
Trafficking prosecutions are assembled piece by piece. Each piece is a place the defense can push.
Confidential informants
Controlled buys
Surveillance and tracking
Search warrants
Wiretaps and phone data
The quantity seized
Cash and records
Alleged co-conspirators
What's at Stake
The Penalties Are Among the Heaviest in the State
A trafficking conviction can reshape the rest of your life.
Mandatory
Minimum prison time a judge cannot suspend
Years
Lengthy felony sentences on the heaviest charges
Rights
Loss of gun and other civil rights
Assets
Possible forfeiture of cash and property
How We Defend a Distribution or Trafficking Charge
These cases are big, but big cases have more moving parts to attack. We go after all of them.
We Attack the Warrant
Search and wiretap warrants have to be valid. A defective warrant can knock out the core of the State's evidence.
We Challenge the Informant
Cases built on informants and controlled buys have real weak points. We test reliability, motive, and how the buy was run.
We Fight the Weight
Because thresholds drive mandatory time, we scrutinize how the drugs were weighed, tested, and counted.
We Push to Reduce
Getting a case below a threshold, or down to a lesser charge, can take mandatory prison off the table entirely.
Common Questions
Distribution & Trafficking, Answered
Does a trafficking charge really carry mandatory prison?
Once the weight crosses certain thresholds, yes, Maryland law can require minimum prison time that a judge cannot suspend. That is exactly why fighting the weight, the charge, and the evidence matters so much. Getting a case below a threshold can remove the mandatory minimum.
They used a confidential informant against me. Can I fight that?
Yes. Cases built on informants and controlled buys have real vulnerabilities. Informants often have motives to shade the truth, and how the buy was set up and recorded can be challenged. We dig into all of it.
The drugs were found with a search warrant. Is the case airtight?
No. Warrants have to be supported and properly executed. If the warrant was defective or the search went beyond it, we can move to suppress the evidence, and in a trafficking case that can be decisive.
I wasn't the one in charge. Why am I facing the same charges?
In conspiracy and distribution cases, the State often charges everyone it links to the operation, regardless of role. Your actual involvement matters, and we work to separate you from conduct that was not yours and to fight an overstated role.
Is there any way to avoid the heaviest penalties?
Often, yes. Reducing the charge, getting the weight below a threshold, suppressing key evidence, or challenging your role can all take the worst penalties off the table. The sooner we start, the more of those options stay open.
Charged With Distribution or Trafficking? Call Before You Say a Word.
These cases carry mandatory time and were built against you over months. The defense has to start now. Tell us what happened and get an honest read on your options. The first conversation is free.
Arrested after hours? Call our 24/7 line: 240-687-0179
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC Practicing Law in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Prince George’s Counties.
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC Practicing Law in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Prince George’s Counties.
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC
Fax: 301-627-5848
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