Boise Criminal Lawyers - Idaho Criminal Defense (208) 472-2383

Busted! That's what happened Thursday to several Boise area smoke shop owners.  I knew something was up before the story hit the news because someone called my office Thursday and said, "Do you or any of the other Boise Criminal Lawyers know why the cops are surrounding all the smoke shops in the area?"

Drug raids are nothing new to criminal attorneys, they just happen to be fairly unusual in the Boise area.  The topic of the raids was a little different from your ordinary raid.  Criminal lawyers are used to hearing about raids on individuals manufacturing meth or a marijuana farms but this had to do with paraphernalia and Spice.  The smoke shops had been under surveillance for several weeks and several of the shops sold Spice to undercover agents.

Many people ask me as a Boise Criminal Attorney why selling to an undercover agent doesn't constitute being "framed".  Entrapment, the technical word for being framed, would mean that you didn't have a propensity to commit the crime.  If you are all ready committing the crime, the use of undercover agents is simply to establish evidence against you.

The U. S. Attorney for the Boise area said that the smoke shops were selling drug paraphernalia under the guise of smoking accoutrements.  Paraphernalia?  Really?  It makes this criminal attorney wonder why the feds haven't got anything else better to do.  You might recall a previous pseudo raid in Boise a few years ago when the Red Eye Hut was shut down for selling paraphernalia.  Why can Jackson's sell rolling papers?  Of course the answer is because they can be used to roll cigarettes.  So what makes a marijuana pipe a marijuana pipe?  Couldn't someone use a glass pipe to smoke tobacco? If you can sell rolling papers at the local Jackson's, and they have a dual purpose; to roll cigarettes with and to roll marijuana joints with, why can't a smoke shop sell a glass pipe if it too has the same two functions?  These are a few questions I would pose to the prosecuting attorney, the judge and the jury.

Now Spice is a different story.  It is a cannabinoid and can be used to get high.  It's unregulated and potential dangerous.  According to the U.S. Attorney, many of the shop owners were openly selling Spice.  Spice was made illegal in the past few years, once it was detected to be a cannabinoid.

If you need a Boise Criminal Lawyer for a drug charge, including possession of marijuana, meth, paraphernalia or any other criminal charge, give us a call (208) 472-2383 and see what we can do for you.

Boise Criminal Lawyers - Criminal Defense Attorneys - Crime in Federal Court

Crime in Idaho exists but big time crime isn't often seen in our big state with a small population.  So, it was exciting to criminal lawyers and the general public as well when last year southern Idaho was thrown into the spotlight.  Jay Shaw, an Owhyee County rancher was arrested with a drama to rival Hawaii 5-O - Book 'em Danno!  What did this small town rancher do to have ATF descend upon his homestead?  Shaw's true identity and nature of his crime was quickly revealed and news spread across the state like an Idaho wildfire.  He was the accused mobster, Enrico Ponzo wanted for identity theft and illegal possession of firearms, not to mention for violent crimes associated with his life as a mobster.

Ponzo was indicted in Boise on Tuesday in Federal Court on multiple counts of unlawfully possessing firearms and identity theft.  As a Boise Criminal Lawyer the big question I keep getting is why is Ponzo being tried in Federal Court instead of an Idaho State Court?

The U.S. Attorney has indicted Ponzo in Federal Court because his crimes cross state lines.  Also, while there are state laws regulating gun control, the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) regulates Federal law for possessing firearms.  If a crime is committed in within the borders of a state the state law applies but can also be subject to Federal Laws if the underlying possession of the firearms are illegal.

Ponzo's crimes, according to the federal prosecuting attorneys include unlawfully possessing 34 firearms, and identification documents used for identity theft.  The federal criminal lawyers also say that Ponzo hid for 15 years in Idaho and funded his new identity through drug activity and lived a life of fraud and identity theft.  Prior to hiding in Idaho, Ponzo was purported to be was a big city mobster who killed as part as his role in the mob.  For all of you who remember, the illusive Al Capone wasn't brought down because of mobster activity like murder, he was convicted of tax evasion.  Looks like Ponzo will follow a similar fate.