Edinburg Criminal Defense Blog

Being accused of a crime involving possession or trafficking of drugs in Texas is very serious. Individuals who are accused of drug possession or drug trafficking crimes can find their reputations damaged. They can also face severe penalties. For that reason, it is critical for anyone facing such accusations to secure qualified and experienced representation in the form of an attorney who has successfully worked with the issues specific to drug crimes before.

One recent drug crime in the news involved someone originally brought to the attention of authorities by way of a car accident. The man involved, a former Mexican police officer, was driving in a 2007 Ford Explorer SUV on Interstate 40 and almost hit the vehicle a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety was in. The trooper, confronting the man about that, became very suspicious of the man and asked to search his vehicle.

It is a serious matter to be charged with drug-related offenses, including possession of drugs. A charge of possession of drugs can result in a wide range of penalties for a person found guilty of it, including, in some cases, incarceration. Of course, the penalties for those found guilty of drug possession are dependent upon a wide array of factors, including the kind of drugs that they had and if the amount of drugs they had constitutes intent to distribute the drugs.

Sometimes, drugs are discovered by accident while intrepid police officers are busily investigating something else. Recently, officers were responding to the theft of backpacks from several people who were at a water park. Those backpacks included items like an Apple Watch and cellphones, with the total value of the items being $4,869.

Being charged with drunk driving, typically referred to as DUI or DWI charge, can result in a range of consequences for defendants. Those consequences can include incarceration, fines and administrative license suspension. The consequences are often particularly severe in cases of repeat offenses and in cases where injuries were suffered as a result of the defendant's actions while under the influence.

Despite that, many people are stopped and arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Texas every day. That happens in big cities and small rural areas, with police setting up what are called sobriety checkpoints in order to stop vehicles at an array of locations. These checkpoints, as their name implies, exist to give police officers an opportunity to determine if drivers are under the influence. To do so successfully, they may focus on vehicles that seem to be driven too fast, are driven erratically or otherwise appear to be driven in an unsafe manner.

The Office of the Attorney General of Texas (AGT) describes human trafficking as a type of slavery. It involves children, women and men being forced to work or perform sex acts for someone else's financial gain.

Data published by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016 showed that there were 234,000 victims of labor trafficking in Texas then. There were approximately 79,000 minor sex trafficking victims.