How to Avoid Being Arrested in Illinois with Drugs in Your Car
As a Chicago drug lawyer I know that most drug cases start off as routine traffic stops. Driving with drugs in your car or, "riding dirty," is a dangerous and careless way to greatly increase your chances of not only death or injury, but also, a cocaine or marijuana arrest that will cost you time, money, and possibly even your freedom. Driving with cocaine or marijuana in the car is too high risk and should be avoided because a routine traffic ticket stop can easily turn into a search of your car.
In a typical Chicago drug case, police observe a motorist commit a minor traffic infraction such as speeding or driving with expired plates and pull that driver over. Police, in Cook County especially, are experts trained to detect clues indicating drug possession; once the police are up close to you and your car during the traffic stop, they are more likely to observe clues that could justify a search of you or your car. Obviously, if you have cocaine or cannabis in the car, this will cause you to be arrested.
To illustrate, a man driving on Interstate 55 in Illinois was recently pulled over for improper lane usage. As the police approached the car, he noticed that the motorist's spare tire was in the back seat and became suspicious. The officer searched the driver's car and allegedly found a large amount of cocaine in the trunk. The driver now faces charges of drug possession with intent to distribute.
Also, unlike the privacy of your home, the streets and highways are a public venue thereby making it much more likely that police will notice illegal activity. Paris Hilton, for example, learned this the hard way in Las Vegas recently when she allegedly drove down the strip in a car that exuded an odor of marijuana smoke thereby giving police an arguable basis to arrest and search her. The stop and resulting search resulted in cocaine charges being filed against her.
If you have been arrested for drug possession in Chicago as a result of a traffic stop, there are still many ways to beat your case or reach a fair and reasonable agreement with prosecutors that preserves your record. If the police searched your car without probable cause, the dismissal of your Illinois cocaine or marijuana case is your Constitutional right.
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