So many marijuana users have been caught that, last year, Yuma officials had to streamline the legal process. In a program unique to the Yuma Sector, Border Patrol agents were given the authority to write citations in low-quantity marijuana cases as though they were deputies working for the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office. The majority of the busts occurred at the checkpoint along eastbound I-8, the freeway that carries vacationers between Arizona and San Diego.
The state has Interstates 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35, in addition to Highways 59, 77, 83 and 281, which are used as common drug smuggling routes. West’s solution is to write tickets for possession of “drug paraphernalia,” a Class C misdemeanor that doesn’t require a court appearance and imposes a fine of $500 (plus $27 in “court costs”). The fact that you were caught red-handed home environment bamboo sheets with actual pot is conveniently ignored. This paraphernalia ticket is offered to you by a smiling deputy who can get you out of those handcuffs and on your way again if you simply sign for it. After five or six hours on the perp bench, it’s an easy decision. Spokesman Schappell talks almost wistfully of the days when the sector was hopping with illegal immigrants.
Ask MetaFilter is where thousands of life’s little questions are answered. It’s my favorite highway to drive West to California on. I’d recommend 40, with the caveat to avoid Dallas at all costs or go through at night.
Sentenced released on time served after 17 months when the government argued for 84-month sentence. Altogether, 7,818 (48.3%) of the 16,198 drug offenders were sentenced to terms below the mandatory minimums under either or both § 3553 and § 3553. Sentencing Commission reviewed documentation for 76,478 cases, of which 21,023 (28.6%) involved offenses carrying a mandatory minimum sentence. Defendants facing mandatory minimum sentences were twice as likely to go to trial rather than accept a plea agreement [6.2% to 3.7%] because they have much less incentive to plead guilty. The ruse has to be set up to focus on likely traffickers, while weeding out as many innocent people as possible — the suspicion has to be specific to an individual, not any group of people who may have used an exit. In the highway patrol’s last operation, troopers found a load of heroin stashed behind a gas cap and the driver was charged with distribution.
I’ll have personal belongings for a cross-country move, but no drugs, no guns, no produce (I’ve heard this is important). Like I said it’s been a long time since I’ve run across there, so best advice I can offer is to have a CB in your vehicle tuned to Channel 19 and listen to ‘truckers’ travelling back and forth across there. When the man was taken to the department’s crime lab, he watched as officers pried off the bumper of his car. He was released after officers counted the bundles of money from his suitcase and the cash found in his pocket.
It’s an incredibly clever way of avoiding capturing those dealers. So they go after people who sell drugs to minors, and only when theyre looking at someone elses gun, or trying to take a drug-detecting drug. When I first heard about the checkpoints, I thought they were the New Coke commercials. But after I read the article and saw the video, I saw that it’s real. Even though the checkpoints aren’t enforced by government, they’re there.
Versus those charged to tactical checkpoints in the same sector. Improve the effectiveness of checkpoints and border security efforts. Increases that could be attributed to vigilance at interior checkpoints. To provide the range of facilities offered by permanent checkpoints.
California, that was used to supplement the permanent checkpoint on I-15. Electronic sensors, and agent patrols in the vicinity of the checkpoints. Checkpoints were necessary to address the sector’s needs. I have an appointment with a psychologist, and he’s very helpful.
In fact, Jeremy Schappell, spokesman for the Yuma Sector, brags that the agency practices zero tolerance when it comes to any amount of illegal substances or paraphernalia. Still, a misdemeanor conviction for pot means that you must pay hundreds of dollars in fines in Arizona. And, it’s not uncommon for defendants to fork over thousands of dollars in attorney fees trying to avoid a conviction — which, for some, means loss of a job or disqualification for federal financial aid.