Drug Trafficking Lawyer Kansas City, MO

Drug-Trafficking Offenses in the Missouri Revised Statutes

The Missouri Revised Statutes has an extensive chapter dedicated to outlining drug offenses. While most of these crimes could be used to punish trafficking activities, the chapter contains two specific trafficking offenses.

First-Degree Drug Trafficking

First-degree drug trafficking covers the following acts involving controlled substances:

• Distributing
• Delivering
• Manufacturing
• Producing

The criminal statute also covers attempts to engage in any of these acts.

To be criminally culpable for an attempt, the accused must take a substantial step toward committing the offense. A “substantial step” includes any act that corroborates the accused’s purpose in committing the offense. This requirement distinguishes between talking about committing a drug crime and actually attempting to commit it.

The statute doesn’t define the terms “distributing,” “delivering,” “manufacturing,” or “producing.” However, “delivering” generally refers to a physical transfer from one person to another.

“Distributing” generally means a transfer to others for further sale or delivery, while “manufacturing” and “producing” encompass the making, growing, refining, processing, and packaging of drugs.

For trafficking charges to apply, the offense must involve the following types and amounts of drugs:

• Heroin Mixture: Over 30 grams
• Cocaine Mixture, Coca Leaves, and Cocaine Salts: Over 150 grams
• LSD Mixture: Over 500 milligrams
• PCP Mixture: Over 30 grams
• Pure PCP: Over four grams
• Marijuana Mixture: Over 30 kilograms
• Methamphetamine Mixture: Over 30 grams
• MDMA Mixture: Over 30 grams
• Pure Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), First Trafficking Offense: Over one gram
• Pure GHB, First Trafficking Offense: Any amount
• Pure Fentanyl or Carfentanil: Over 10 milligrams

The law provides for enhanced penalties for the following amounts:

• Heroin Mixture: Over 90 grams
• Cocaine Mixture, Coca Leaves, and Cocaine Salts: Over 450 grams
• LSD Mixture: Over one gram
• PCP Mixture: Over 90 grams
• Pure PCP: Over 12 grams
• Marijuana Mixture: Over 100 kilograms
• Methamphetamine Mixture: Over 90 grams
• MDMA Mixture: Over 90 grams
• Methamphetamine Mixture or MDMA Mixture Trafficked Within 2,000 Feet of a School, Hotel, or Public Housing Building: Over 30 grams
• Pure Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), Second or Subsequent Trafficking Offense: Over one gram
• Pure GHB, Second or Subsequent Trafficking Offense: Any amount
• Pure Fentanyl or Carfentanil: Over 20 milligrams

These amounts may seem high. However, Missouri law accounts for mixtures that include detectable amounts of these substances.

Therefore, when the statute refers to 30 grams of methamphetamine, it includes any material that’s cut with or mixed into the meth. As a result, you could face trafficking charges for 30 grams of a meth mixture, even if it only contains one gram of meth.

Second-Degree Drug Trafficking

Second-degree drug trafficking involves the same amounts but different activities. More specifically, you could face second-degree trafficking charges for the following activities involving a controlled substance:

• Possessing
• Controlling
• Purchasing
• Transporting into the state

The amounts that trigger second-degree offenses are generally the same as for the first-degree offense, with the exception of flunitrazepam and GHB. GHB isn’t subject to a second-degree trafficking offense, while flunitrazepam triggers a second-degree offense for any amount.

Additionally, the law recognizes an elevated offense for any activities involving a methamphetamine mixture, amphetamine mixture, or MDMA mixture totaling at least 450 grams.

Defenses Against Drug-Trafficking Charges in Kansas City, MO

An experienced criminal defense attorney might use any of several defense strategies to challenge your drug-trafficking charges, including the following.

Illegal Search

Under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, the police must have a warrant to conduct a search or explain how the circumstances fit into an exception to the warrant requirement. Some common exceptions include drugs found in plain sight and those discovered during a search incidental to an arrest for another charge.

However, assuming that none of those exceptions apply, law enforcement’s failure to secure a search warrant could result in the suppression of any evidence they recover in a search. The government can’t use anything against you that was discovered as part of an unlawful search.

Lack of Intent

The activities that constitute drug trafficking must occur “knowingly.” Under Missouri law, the accused commits an act knowingly when they’re aware of all the circumstances that make their conduct illegal.

Your lawyer can argue that you lacked the intent required to traffic drugs if you were unaware of the nature of the goods you possessed, transported, delivered, or distributed.

For example, the person who gave them to you might have told you that you were delivering something else, like prescription medication. Alternatively, they might have concealed the illegal drugs somehow, such as in a package or a hidden compartment in your vehicle.

Entrapment

Entrapment arises when the accused has no predisposition to break the law, but an undercover law enforcement agent goads or pressures them into committing an illegal act.

This defense recognizes that it would be unfair for an undercover police officer to pressure or cajole a truck driver into delivering drugs, then arrest them for doing so.

Alibi

Your criminal defense attorney may be able to present alibi evidence showing that you couldn’t have committed the offense. For example, you might have an eyewitness who saw you at work when the prosecution alleges you were transporting drugs across state lines.

No Statutory Violation

Your lawyer may also have many other options for proving that you didn’t violate the law. For example, the police might have misweighed the alleged drugs or incorrectly analyzed the chemicals in them.

In these cases, we can engage expert witnesses to review the prosecution’s evidence and testify about the flaws in the scientific analysis the police performed.

Possible Penalties After a Drug-Trafficking Conviction in Kansas City, MO

Under Missouri law, the penalty for drug trafficking depends on the type and amount of the substance involved. Based on the tables incorporated into the statutes, a judge could sentence someone convicted of trafficking to the following prison terms: