Possession with Intent to Distribute More Than 54 Kilograms of Cocaine.
Motion to Suppress All Narcotics Convinces Prosecution to Dismiss Case Without a Hearing.
Investigating a drug trafficking organization, police obtained wire-taps on multiple people’s phones. After listening to their conversations, officers learned a huge shipment of cocaine would arrive hidden in tomato crates. Jumping at this information, the officers waited at the location the shipment was to arrive, stopped the tomato truck, and seized 54 kilograms of cocaine.
There was only one problem, as Mr. Bolotin pointed out in a motion to suppress. The wiretaps were 100% illegal. The law required the elected state’s attorney to sign off on all non-consensual wiretap applications -wiretaps where neither person talking on the phone worked as a snitch and consented to the police officers listening to their conversations. None of the wiretap applications obtained by the police in A.S.’s case were ever authorized by the elected state’s attorney.
Mr. Bolotin filed a motion to suppress arguing the seizure of the cocaine was the fruit of the poisonous tree: without the illegal wiretaps, the officers would never had been allowed to listen on the conversations, would never have learned the cocaine was hidden in the tomato crates, would never have had any cause, let alone probable cause, to search the crates, and would never had found the cocaine. After reviewing Mr. Bolotin’s motion to suppress, the prosecution knew they had no case and dismissed all charges.
