An out-of-state visitor has been arrested in Quincy on suspicion of drug trafficking, according to local police. The questionable drug crime charges stem from an unrelated traffic stop by local police who were later assisted by the West Central Illinois Task Force in this case. The man remains in custody pending a trial date.
According to police reports, the 36-year-old man was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by officers for a failure to signal. Once the vehicle was stopped, an investigation ensued in which K-9 units alerted officers that narcotics may have been present in the vehicle. It is unknown why the K-9 unit was called to the scene. Both the man and the driver were arrested on suspicion of drug possession and taken to a county jail.
There, police allege they discovered the man was hiding narcotics including cocaine and heroin within his body. The specifics of that search were also unavailable. The driver was charged with several traffic infractions and was set free after posting bail, but the other man was charged with drug crimes including trafficking and possession.
There are several ways drug crime charges like these could be overturned in an Illinois court of law, most of which have to do with the specifics of an arrest. Prosecutors will have to justify the extended investigation of the vehicle that prompted the arrival of the K-9 unit, and will also have to prove the defendant’s rights were observed throughout the arrest process. Finally, they will have to prove the drugs allegedly found in the defendant’s body were what they appeared to be, in significant enough measures to warrant a trafficking charge, and that they belonged to the defendant.
Source: Quincy Herald-Whig, St. Louis man arrested in Quincy on drug charges, No author, Aug. 29, 2013