In this country, the authorities are only supposed to perform stops and searches when they have a valid reason to do so. It’s your Constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, after all. That means that if the police see you run a red light or catch you speeding, they can stop your car — but they can’t search it without either your permission or some valid, legally enforceable reason to do so.
That’s what makes “whisper stops” so infuriating. According to investigative reports, federal authorities are going out of their way to “whisper in the ear” of local law enforcement officers about suspected drug traffickers. Lacking the evidence to make an arrest (or even get a warrant to do any kind of searching) the federal authorities will sometimes “whisper in the ear” of local police officers and prosecutors and let them know what they suspect.
What happens next? Amazingly enough, the police find a traffic violation that allows them to stop the vehicle of the suspected drug trafficker. Then, more often than not, they also find a reason to search the car. Then, prosecutors and others make sure that they conceal the source of their “hunches” that leads to any successful drug busts — especially when they’re “constitutionally dubious.”
It sounds like something out of a dystopian story, but it happens all the time, right here in America. Without an experienced advocate on your side, you may never know that you can challenge the evidence being used against you in a drug trafficking case, especially when that evidence was obtained through underhanded means.
If you’ve been charged with a drug offense after a search and seizure of your vehicle that seemed like it came out of the blue, find out more about your legal options.
