Drug Possession Lawyer in Toronto

In recent years, police have received greater funding to combat organized crime, and wiretap authorizations have become more commonplace. There is nothing more effective in court than for a prosecutor to introduce your own words or those of your accomplices against you to prove that you are engaged in the sale or importing of drugs or controlled substances. Wiretaps can intercept your telephone, your cellphone, and yes, even email and text messages. Police also have the power to install listening devices in your room or your car in order to build a case against you.

Often, the difference between a conviction and an acquittal comes down to whether wiretap intercepts are allowed into evidence. Wiretap authorizations are extremely complex, with the documents running hundreds of pages. Such complexity creates opportunities to challenge the admissibility of this powerful evidence. Also, because the state’s interception of your personal communications is such a significant invasion of privacy, and there are many gray areas between permissible police investigation and a constitutional violation, there is an enormous body of case law about where to draw the line. It takes an experienced lawyer to interpret these laws and regulations to make sure that your rights are respected and that you are not convicted because of evidence that was illegally or improperly obtained. At The Defence Group, we have years of experience prosecuting and defending wiretap cases and are in the best position to help you deal with such difficult matters.

One of the most powerful tools at the disposal of the police is their ability to enter your home, place of business, car, or anywhere else where you have an expectation of privacy. Once they enter, they have the power to search and seize anything they deem to be relevant to their investigation. The police even have the power to seize samples of your blood, fingerprints or DNA to build a case against you.

To be able to deploy such a powerful tool, the police must comply with certain rules developed by Parliament and the courts to protect your privacy interest. In addition, section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. Before they can search your property, the police must apply to a judge or justice of the peace for a search warrant. A sworn affidavit must be filed with court setting out all of the particulars relevant to the court’s decision to grant a search warrant. If any of the details are missing, incorrect, or misleading, the search warrant and the evidence derived from it could be thrown out. For that reason, the affidavit in support of the search warrant is often subject to a sealing order, so that the defence cannot access it unless an application is brought by the court for an unsealing order.

At The Defence Group, we can help you with all aspects of search warrants, including before, during and after police show up with a warrant. We will bring an application to unseal the warrant, and analyze all of the information to determine the best strategy for challenging the case, the evidence, and even the warrant itself. Often, the Crown’s entire case will rest on the evidence seized by police during a search; therefore, if the warrant is thrown out, or the search is deemed unconstitutional, the case might be won right at the outset of the trial.

One area of law enforcement that has become much more commonplace recently is the government’s strategy of seizing assets that they believe to be proceeds of criminal activity. For example, if drugs are found in the trunk of your car or in the cargo hold of your transport truck, they can seize the vehicle. If drugs are stored in your house, they can seize your house. If you have cash in the bank or investment accounts that the government claims must have been earned from illegal activity such as drug trafficking, they can seize your money also. This tactic is a very powerful tool, because it is designed to hurt the target where it really counts: in the pocketbook. If your assets are seized or frozen, then you cannot pay your mortgage, afford to hire a lawyer, or put up bail money.

Worse, once the state has seized or frozen the property, they will seek a court order forfeiting the property to the government; and the standard for such an application, in the case of a civil forfeiture, is lower than it is to prove the criminal case against you. In other words, you can win your case and still lose your assets!

The forfeiture provisions are complex and often misinterpreted or misunderstood. At The Defence Group, we have lawyers who worked on the government side of these cases, and have the knowledge and experience to defend them fully so that you can get your property back. We can also bring applications for interim orders for you to access funds to hire a lawyer or to pay your mortgage so that the bank does not foreclose on your house

Police will often use information from informants to build a case against a target in a drug investigation. Search warrants or wiretap authorizations are often based on what they tell their police handlers. Informants are dangerous because their identity is protected by the law and never revealed, which makes it very difficult to challenge the information they have provided to police. Informants often lie or exaggerate, and they have their own agenda; often they something to gain by providing information, such as a break on their own criminal case; money; or the elimination of a rival. It takes a great deal of finesse and a sophisticated knowledge of this area of the law because the Crown and the courts are very reluctant to permit the disclosure of any evidence or permit any questioning that could remotely come close to exposing the informant’s identity. Yet if the information can be shown to be unreliable, or challenged so that it must be removed from consideration in the case, or in the search warrant or wiretap authorization, it can spell the end of the Crown’s case.

Only a lawyer with the experience in dealing with challenges to confidential informants should be entrusted with your case in such a situation. At The Defence Group, we have the knowledge and skill to prepare and carry out an effective attack on the informants’ privilege.

Drug transactions occur in secret, because they are illegal. Drug investigations, therefore, require the police to enter into the private space of their targets to seize evidence. Police gather evidence through surveillance, wiretaps, informants, undercover operations, search warrants, and civilian agents. In utilizing these techniques, police are often treading the line between what is legally justifiable and what constitutes an invasion of the target’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Drug cases often stand or fall based on the courts’ assessment of police conduct, and applications to exclude evidence or seek a stay of proceedings often form part of the strategy that we at The Defence Group will use to win the case.