Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
Police in St. Johns County, Florida arrested two people after conducting a search warrant in a home that resulted in the seizure of cocaine, marijuana plants and prescription pills, according to an article on News4Jax.com. According to St. Johns County police, they received anonymous complaints about the house and obtained a search warrant for drugs as a result. They apparently seized about $50,000 worth of illegal drugs in the house.
In a drug trafficking case like this, one of the first things a criminal defense lawyer would look at is whether the police had the right to enter and search the house. The police apparently had a search warrant, but that is not an automatically legitimate basis for searching a house. The search warrant has to be based on specific and reliable evidence that there is illegal activity taking place in the house. The article only references anonymous complaints about the house. The police may have had more specific information when they obtained the search warrant, but anonymous tips, without more, usually would not be sufficient information to obtain a valid search warrant. Anonymous complaints may be enough for police to initiate an investigation of the house, but without more specific evidence and corroboration of the anonymous complaints, the validity of the search warrant may be called into question. If the search warrant is found to be invalid in court after the criminal defense attorney files a motion to suppress, all of the drugs and other evidence found pursuant to the illegal search warrant would be thrown out of court.