DRUG OFFENCES

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The police found three houses full of illegal drugs.  They also found guns and large quantities of cash, in the house.  All three houses were linked to our client.We brought a motion to exclude all of the  drugs, guns and money.  The motion was successful and all of the evidence was excluded.  The prosecutor was forced to withdraw the charges against our client.  This is the story.
Police were called by neighbours, and told that people had moved out of a home next door and left the door ajar.  Two officers arrived on scene and entered the home.  The main floor and the upstairs were largely empty and consistent with the neighbour's story.  Police then went downstairs and discovered that  large grow operation was in the basement.  The officers went back outside, called their Sgt. who attended and also looked in the house and its basement.  He decided that they needed to get a warrant to search the premises.  
They obtained the warrant and a full complement of officers searched the home where they found hundreds of illegal marijuanna plants.  A hand gun concealed in the joists of the home, and a utility bill with an address to another house in a different town.  The police went to the the new address and watched.  They eventually saw a man come out into a field and burn a bag of plant material that gave off a stench that the officer believed was marijuana.   
The police  obtained a second warrant for this house and obtained a warrant to fly over the home and take infrared video which would indicate if there was a heat signature consistent with a grow operation.  The police flew over with their equipment and determined that the house was hotter than a normal residence (an indication of a drug growing operation).  On the strength of this evidence, the police then obtained a warrant to search the residence.  They found drugs, money, guns and documents referring to a third location.  
Police then obtained a warrant for a third house and searched it finding more drugs.
We brought a motion to the court to exclude all of the evidence because it was based on an illegal warrantless search of the first house.  Even though the police had obtained a warrant to search.  The warrant was sought only after the house had been search twice before.   Once by the two officers initially on scene and once again by the Sargent who told them to get a warrant.  It was  clear that they knew that they ought to have a warrant.  The location of the second house and the third house would never have been known to the police without the find of the utility bill for the second house. The evidence was clearly derivative of the first warrantless search.   It also emerged that the airplane had flown over the wrong house with its infrared equipment, thus giving more reason to invalidate the second warrant and consequently undermine the third warrant.  
The court excluded all evidence and our client went free, with no criminal  conviction.        

If you have been charged with gun or drug offences, you need a serious and experienced lawyer. If the facts are against you, then you need to attack the facts. You might have been arrest with cocaine, heroine, fentanyl, or methamphetamine on your person, in your car or in your house. It's not over.
In these types of cases the first tactic is to exclude the evidence. This can be done by bringing motions or applications to court where there was no search warrant, where the search warrant was invalid or where the information to obtain the warrant was inaccurate or misleading. Well over 20 years of experience helps identify weak warrants, and expand the cracks in the prosecution’s case.
Often after a successful Charter application there will be little or no evidence left with which the prosecutor can use to attempt to prove the case. This can result in the collapse of the prosecution before it gets to trial. It can also result in a trial that is much more likely to be won by the defence. Arguing the facts of the case before a jury is much more effective when your lawyer can control what facts are available to be argued before the judge or the jury. Give yourself an advantage, in defending your case, by hiring a defence lawyer, with a lot of experience and excellence in technique, and court presence. Remember that with winning comes the knowledge of how to win. Knowing how to win comes with experience.