Drug Crime Lawyer

It is not unusual in investigations involving drug crimes that the police may ask a suspect of a crime to do work for them as a confidential informant in order to reduce or eliminate their potential for criminal consequences.

An offer to work with the police can be tempting.

If you have been caught red-handed possessing or even distributing drugs, you may find yourself in a situation where you are being asked by the police if you would be willing to work as a confidential informant. The idea for the police is that they will move up the chain and obtain an arrest of someone who is committing a more serious crime than you. The benefit that they dangle in front of you is trying to get rid of your charges or to avoid jail time.

This can be a really tempting proposition, as facing serious criminal consequences can be really scary. However, before you make the decision to work with the police, it is best for you to consult with a criminal defense attorney and make an informed decision about whether what you are doing is wise.

Working with the police involves real danger.

In order for you to be valuable to the police, you’ve got to provide them with information that would allow them to make an arrest of someone who is much further into the drug trade than you. This means that they want someone who might be relatively dangerous. Snitches are not looked upon favorably by drug dealers, and you may be placing yourself at risk of a real serious harm if you agree to work with the police. When the police say “confidential informant,” they really only mean temporarily confidential. If the police arrest and prosecute a drug dealer based on information you have provided, at some point you are going to be called to testify and your identity is going to be revealed to the person that you have snitched on.

The police can’t always follow through on their promises.

The police will make you a lot of promises in trying to get you to work for them. The problem is, the police aren’t authorized to make the decisions about the promises that they are making to you. Ultimately, the person who will be making the decision about what happens regarding your case will be the prosecutor. Many times, the police will not have consulted with the prosecutor prior to making you a promise, while they are still in the investigation phase of a case. But when their investigation concludes, you’ve got to rely on the police to really go to bat for you with the prosecutor who is making the decisions, because the prosecutor could go back on every promise that was made to you by the police, and you will have absolutely no recourse.

Make sure that your offer is solid before you do the work.

The benefit of working with a drug crime lawyer before you agree to work with the police is that the attorney may be able to negotiate an agreement with the police and the prosecutor that is binding. This will also prevent the police from forcing you to do never-ending work for them in order to get the deal that you are looking for.

If you have been approached by the police to work for them as a confidential informant, contact a lawyer who is experienced in defending drug crimes today.