For many individuals arrested for a drug offense, the temptation to cooperate with law enforcement in an effort to reduce the likelihood of arrest, to enhance the likelihood that law enforcement will reduce the charges or advocate for leniency on his behalf following his conviction is overwhelming. Assisting law enforcement is not, however, without risks. A Boston Drug Trafficking Lawyer can advise you of the potential downsides of cooperating with law enforcement.
Such assistance, whether negotiated by you prior to your arraignment or by your lawyer in an effort to resolve your case, is often open-ended and law enforcement decides whether or not you have satisfied your obligation to provide assistance. It is not unusual for narcotics detectives to place an individual in dozens of dangerous situations performing controlled buys only to report him to the court for non-compliance for refusing to allow them to endanger him indefinitely.
Those individuals who must serve a term of incarceration – despite their assistance – are allowing law enforcement to jeopardize their very lives. Rumors of an inmate’s cooperation with the police circulate quickly within prison walls and, very often, aggressive and violent fellow inmates will target the “rat” for abuse or even death. For their own protection, inmates who have cooperated with law enforcement are placed in isolation. While no period of imprisonment is without a deleterious effect on the emotional health, isolation is particularly brutal for even the toughest man.
If you are charged with a drug offense you are a victim of the War on Drugs. Don’t become a foot soldier in this war by helping narcotics detectives and the D.E.A. victimize other citizens. This war has already caused too much carnage.
Kevin J. Mahoney is a Cambridge Drug Trafficking Defense Lawyer.
