Eleven people in New York are facing drug charges following a police raid on Jan. 30. The incident took place in Schenectady shortly before 7 p.m. and concluded an investigation that was being conducted by the Schenectady Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit. It is unclear how long the investigation was going on prior to the raid.
Information gathered by the special unit into the alleged drug activities led detectives and the Special Operations Squad to enter an apartment on State Street. During the raid, police took 11 people into custody for various drug charges. The ages of the accused individuals ranged from 18 to 50, and the majority of the people who were detained were in their late teens and 20s.
Although reports did not indicate the specific drug charges that the defendants faced, reports suggest that heroin and cocaine were seized from the apartment during the raid. All of the detainees were arraigned the morning after they were taken into custody, and police are not expecting the individuals to be handed any further charges.
A person who is facing drug charges after this type of incident might want to speak with an attorney about possible defense strategies. If a large group of people were all detained at once, a defendant might argue that they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. An attorney may help a person to argue this point by establishing that they were not found with any drugs on their person. Such a defense may lead to lesser charges or a lighter sentence if a conviction occurs.
Source: News10.com, “Several arrested after drug raid in Schenectady,” Feb. 2, 2015