Meth dealers are, no doubt, spreading the news and leaving today for New York. Talk about waking up in that city that doesn’t sleep! Two meth drug smugglers were arrested by federal authorities with $1.2 million dollars of meth. The world is now safer with these vipers off the streets. Not in New York. According to the msn.com post, under New York law, officials say, these criminals had to be released under a supervised release program.
It’s a ‘gap!’ Make sense of this legislation, if you can. The msn.com post continues: “The two men — Luis Estrada, 19, and Carlos Santos, 34 — were busted moving $1.2 million worth of crystal meth in New York. However, a gap in the state’s drug laws designates meth as a “controlled substance” but not a “narcotic.”
Categories matter, and “Under the second-degree charge of possession of a controlled substance, authorities were forced to grant the pair of suspects supervised release.” As the post clarified, “Second-degree possession does not qualify for a bail requirement.” If $1.2 million in meth is a second-degree possession, the mind boggles at what a first-degree possession constitutes.
“Under current New York State law, neither man could be charged with a bail-eligible offense. Methamphetamine is categorized as a controlled substance, but not a narcotic drug,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said in a statement on the arrests.
The article explains the bail ruling. “Regardless of the amount of methamphetamine involved, and regardless of a defendant’s lack of connections to New York State, under current law judges may not set bail on cases involving the possession of only methamphetamine.” Estrada and Santos were arrested on July 5 and July 8 respectively.
Some details of the arrest were provided. Estrada was apprehended while carrying a suitcase containing over 40 pounds of crystal meth, as well as two cellphones, $400 in cash and a hotel room key. Santos was arrested three days later after police observed him struggling to cut open air compression canisters near a white van in a public parking lot.
Police intervened and found that the canisters contained a combined 100 pounds of crystal meth. Agents also found bags of cocaine on Santos’s person and two cell phones. Authorities believe both men’s product was produced and transported from Mexico.
It’s just an oversight. “This is a serious problem,” Brennan told The New York Post about officials’ inability to prosecute meth effectively. “The failure to include methamphetamine crimes among bail-eligible offenses was probably an oversight.” For how long can an oversight be an oversight? “However, in the last few decades, meth has poured into the Big Apple, frustrating police and allowing drug cartels to make a profit at far smaller legal risk than elsewhere.”
Perhaps thinking he was saying something insightful, Brennan said in a statement, “The influx of crystal methamphetamine into New York City is the latest example of how synthetic drugs produced outside of the country are flooding our streets. We are all too familiar with the rising death toll and other destructive effects of these substances.” Brennan added: “Users need to be aware that dangerous synthetic drugs have thoroughly saturated the market.” Brennan did not urge that users stop being users.