Drug Crimes

The Port St. Lucie Police Department’s initiative, called “Operation Happy Holidays,” resulted in 45 arrests. Port St. Lucie Police, the DEA and FBI all participated in the operation, including a prostitution sting, highway interdiction, and service of several drug search warrants.

Police say Operation Happy Holidays focused on making neighborhoods safer by arresting “potentially dangerous people.”

Port St. Lucie Police Sting nab 45 suspects

Port St. Lucie Police Sting nabs 45 suspects

During the three month operation that began in September, detectives and agents arrested 45 people for charges ranging from drug sale, trafficking heroin and/or methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, cocaine, crack, possession of stolen fire arms and prostitution. Police collected more than 200 pills, 25 pounds of marijuana, nearly $9,000, five guns, and four vehicles. They also shut down one meth production house in Port St. Lucie and assisted with shutting down two other drug houses in Martin County.

Police relied heavily on community tips to make these arrests.

The penalties for drug trafficking in Florida depend on various factors, but the amount of drugs confiscated and the type of type of drug has the most impact on sentences in Florida drug cases. For example, heroin trafficking is the most serious offense and may include a prison sentence of up to 25 years as well as fines of up to $500,000. Trafficking cocaine or marijuana may include a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a $250,000 fine.

Last month, President Obama expanded his push to curtail severe penalties in drug cases, commuting the sentences of eight federal inmates who were convicted of crack cocaine prior to the passing of the Fair Sentencing Act.

According to news reports, each inmate has been imprisoned for at least 15 years, and six were sentenced to life in prison.

We discussed this issue in August when Attorney General Eric Holder outlined his vision for how the Justice Department, as well as U.S. Attorney Offices throughout the country, would handle low-level drug cases.

Specifically, Holder no longer required that AUSAs list quantities of illicit substances in indictments for low-level drug offenses in order to avoid triggering mandatory minimum sentences. In that speech to the American Bar Association, he said his focus was on shorter prison sentences for nonviolent criminals, more programs to treat those convicted of low-level drug-related crimes and reductions in the number of crimes that carry “mandatory minimum sentences.”

President Obama’s pardons of these inmates is the first indication that the administration is paying more than lip service to their commitment to correct the disparity that minimum-mandatory sentences create in the criminal justice system.

President Obama indicated that one of the reasons for his pardons was that these inmates, had they been sentenced under the current Fair Sentencing Act, would have already served their time and paid their debt to society. Instead, he reasoned, they remained in prison, costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

Prior to the passing of this law, studies show that there was a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, attributable in part to the unrelenting minimum mandatory sentences judges are limited to imposing in many drug cases.

Articles Posted in Drug Crimes

Port St. Lucie police arrest 45 for prostitution, drugs and guns

West Palm Beach Drug Crimes Attorney :: Obama Commutes Sentences for eight inmates serving time for Crack Cocaine offenses