Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

My cousin is Mexican and has just bought a nice car. When he tried to past to US Border the cops examine & scanned the car and saw that it had cocaine, to be more precise 24 kg., but my cousin dont even knew about it. The drug trafficking pennalties is not less than 5 year and a fine of 2 million dollars.... what happens when the person didn't knew that was possesing illegal drug? and in the case of my cousin that is mexican, would they reject forever the VISA?......Can someone give me advise and solution, can this problem be taken to court and are they any ways that he can come clean because his innocent.


Asked on 8/06/10, 11:34 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

If your cousin is being charged criminally (which he almost certainly is), then he is entitled to a trial. At his trial, the prosecutors will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew the cocaine was in the car. But they will probably have a lot more evidence to offer than you realize.

Given the quantity of drugs involved, the government will investigate this case quite thoroughly. The Mexican government will cooperate. That means the government will have pretty reliable information about where the drugs came from and where they were headed. And this evidence will make it very hard for a jury to doubt your cousin's guilt.

24 kg of cocaine is probably worth almost $3 million. It's very hard to believe that Mexican drug traffickers would let that much cocaine out of their control, hoping that their American counterparts would be able to find your cousin's car when and where they expect it. For a jury to acquit your cousin, it would have to believe that this is a reasonable possibility. That seems quite unlikely.

Your cousin needs a very good lawyer, and he needs one now.

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Answered on 8/11/10, 8:15 pm


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