What To Do If You Are Arrested By LE?

 

Here is some very basic advice on what you should do if you are ever arrested by LE, specifically if it is because of receiving DN packs in the mail.

 

 

Firstly, and most importantly, be super polite. This is imperative. Cops know people make mistakes and if you are going to act like a complete idiot towards them they will do their best to hit you harder and make things more difficult for you!

Law enforcement officers are humans too, and treating them with politeness and respect will ease the process and encourage kindness from these people who at the end of the day just think that they are only doing their jobs.

You will be taken to the police station, processed, and fingerprinted and in some cases DNA and Photos of your face taken. Say as little as possible and go through this process calmly and silently. Give over your personal details freely. They will find them out eventually anyway, and you will only serve to incriminate yourself by giving fake information or refusing to give your name.

Once processed, ask for the duty solicitor, and inform the LE officer dealing with your case that you are not sure what is going on, and you think that you should get legal advice, so at this point you will be answering all questions with no comment.

Ask for full disclosure of evidence to the duty solicitor. Without you giving over any information it is unlikely they can charge you for a pack sent to your address as you can argue that you have no knowledge of this and did not order such a package to be sent there.

If they do have sufficient evidence without any statement from you, you will go to court, get a charge, and most likely be released. It is possible that you will have to post bail in order to be released, but hopefully there will not be a severe enough change for them to keep you detained any longer.

Once released from custody, get the name of the duty solicitor who handled your case, go to a criminal lawyer, and ask them to contact the duty solicitor to retrieve the case documents and evidence.

Unless you have been caught with a large amount of contraband or you have previous offenses, it is likely nothing ever will happen to you, as it is not worth their time or money to pursue the case without certainty of winning.

 

 

There is of course the chance that you could be denied bail. This would be the case if you have previous criminal charges or if the pack was a very large amount of contraband and the charges are very severe. In this case, you will be detained until the date of your trial. During this time you should still follow the above, engage the services of a criminal lawyer, ask them to obtain the evidence from your duty solicitor, and then work with your criminal lawyer to prepare for your trial.

This is the worst case scenario. However, it is much more likely that you will be released with bail, or simply released pending your court date. The important thing is to say as little as possible, get a lawyer as soon as possible, remain calm, and act as if you are simply confused by the whole situation until you can have access to a lawyer of your choosing with full confidentiality to discuss your situation.

This is a very basic explanation and quite limited advice, but it is only intended to get you as safely as possible into legal council without incriminating yourself. Advice is from a conversation with an ex police officer, and relayed as best as I can from my experiences.