warrants and suspicious activity

[Aeroguerilla]

i was reading of a grower getting raided for "suspicious activity" there are a lot of things that can fall into this category... would a high electric bill be one? i thought they had to have physical evidence... like smell it, find some clippings in the trash... or worse comes to worse you deal will the po... what if they hear from someone that your growing? is that consider suspicous enough to raid? im not understanding how they can come get a warrant for suspicous activity? and what would be classified as suspicous activity? i dont want any of my friends place gettin raided because they were acting suspicious... we should compile a list of suspicous acts you dont want to do that might get you poppd.

-lights off in house at resonable hours so passerbyers dont wonder why your up all night
-no traffic whether it be friends or family, maybe 1-2 people that your are close to that can help.
-never drive back to your house from your local hydrostore

continue the list boys...

 

[zenoonez]

If they have an informant that says you are a grower, yes that is enough for a warrant. That is why you should never tell anyone you grow. The electric bill is something they can pull up if they have some suspicion about you growing. Easy way to get around this is to have gas appliances and make sure your house runs efficiently, using cfls, have your windows resealed, change your ac filter often, turn your lights out when not in the room, ect. As for all the rest of the stuff just think of it as being a good neighbor. Don't play loud music, don't have parties all the time, don't have people coming and going at all times of the night unless you know their neighbors and have a good cover story. 9 times out of 10 you are going to get busted because either your ex girl is pissed or someone you told or sold to is going to roll on you. Thats why you have to be very careful with how you do things.

 

[Aeroguerilla]

but that informant would have to see it for himself correct?? plant, nutrients, something incriminating. right?

 

[zenoonez]

Nope, he could be lying. How would the police know if he was telling the truth?

 

[sorcival]

All cops are liars...thats why they call em pigs. They dont need proof to get a
warrant...they have sneak and peek warrantless searches now. They can just
about say anything and do you in with a lie.
1. Do not have multiple cars coming and going at all hours.
2. Do not have multiple cars or persons coming and going during the 'hot' hours
on Fri and Sat. nights
3. Allow no smell.
4. TELL NO ONE ABOUT YOUR GROW.
5. Do not brag about your shit to anyone.
6. Keep your personal business just that...personal.
7. Stay off the phone.
8. NEVER talk on a communications device about your gear.
9. ALL cop forces have data mining in place and read all your emails, examine
all your financial records, and listen to your every word on the phone.
10. Never have income that cant be explained readily.
11. Keep careful tabs on your electricity usage and watch for spikes.
12. Remember that someone somewhere is watching you...you can never be
anonymous or unobserved in any thing you do.
13. THINK and RETHINK everything before you do it.
14. Remember, the only perfect crime is the one that doesnt happen, so if you are
going to do something illegal, then at least one person will know...YOU. Anybody
else is one too many.
15. In the end, if they want to bust you, they will with or without reason...even if
they have to set you up to do so.

 

[JJScorpio]

The Judge signing the warrant would have to find the informant "credible". Basically the cop tells the Judge the informant has given them credible information in the past....

Numerous people coming to a residence and leaving in a few minutes would also be considered suspicious activity....

 

[good drown]

All cops are liars...thats why they call em pigs.
9. ALL cop forces have data mining in place and read all your emails, examine
all your financial records, and listen to your every word on the phone.

how do they have time for this? with millions of people or more in my county

 

[GreenintheThumb]

9 is bullshit. But if you ARE under investigation then they can gather all that information up. But as imagined it's a shit ton of work.

 

[Molson]

Were you reading an affidavit or a news article? I'm guessing a news article because an affidavit most likely would define 'suspicious activity.'

I don't think having your lights on at all hours is 'suspicious' but I guess it depends on where you live... I mean what if you're a night owl, or work weird hours?

I think the best advice is to blend in to your surroundings, so to speak.

 

[sorcival]

Have you guys never heard of 'Echelon' or 'Einstein' ? Those are just 2 of the data mining
programs that they 'let' us know about accidentally.
I personally have seen a 'suspect' tracked by gps and infra-red tech from a mobile
computer in a pig car. I am not a pig, so it goes to say that I was harmless....ie:
under question mode. The shit hit the fan and the dude offered the pig service
of tracking to a local pig force. they found this person of interest within seconds
in an upper floor building using just his personal numbers.
I know, I know...here come the flames...but I know what I saw. And I was not
really all that stoned right then. This was back in 2002.
All the big-time pig had to do was input the persons name and numbers and voila'...
the image shifted into green display from text...and next up was a zooming image
of a red blob slowly becoming something that looked like a fire doll with arms
and legs. The local pigs thanked the big-pig dude and went away, presumably to have
a question and answer chat with the red fire blob or something. The big-pig dude
turned to me and said:"see we know when and where..just so you know." cause like
he was trying to intimidate me into talking about my business and all. Which I didnt.
Had to move on the down low tho, and set up in a new town later and all.
NEVER put any thing past the pigs...it IS a war out there...them against us...and they
got more guns and tech.

 

[Two12sKnockin]

no an informant alone is NOT ENOUGH FOR A WARRANT! However it is enough to:

FLIR flyover
k9 walk by
knock and talk
electricity consumption check
surveillance
IF all of these fail even after a snitch and they have exhausted resources THEN they can get a wiretap but not before.

also, the statement of a codefendant that is snitching is not by itself sufficient for a conviction!


orcival, carnivore is equally scary data mining. but i think they only look for the big boys. for those people with 6 medically licensed plants in their closet for personal use its no sweat..

 

[jescowhite]

cops can say anything looks suspicious. Standing outside smoking a cig "nervously" could be suspicious. Taking paper grocery bags out of your car could be suspicious "packages". If they want you bad enough it's that easy.

 

[Pythagllio]

They'll definitely list your electric useage as 'suspicious'

If you use too much that's consistent with using high powered lights to grow indoors.

If you don't use enough, it's consistent with stealing electricity, which is consistent with using high powered lights to grow indoors.

If you happen to come in dead on the average use that's consistent with 'sophisticated' growers that steal electricity, but know to put enough on the meter to avoid suspicion.

They'll do a garbage pull, and use that in the warrant.

If you leave a bag outside with growing trash/and or plant material, it's easy.

If you don't put garbage out that's consistent with 'sophisticated' growers that know that investigators search garbage.

You might see this one left out if you put regular garbage out every collection without any incriminating content, but I'll betcha some investigator could twist this to being 'consistent' with growing. I just haven't seen one yet and my mind isn't twisted enough to figure out how they'd word it. Which really shows how twisted these fucks are because I am one twisted individual.

 

[ureapwhatusow]

no an informant alone is NOT ENOUGH FOR A WARRANT! However it is enough to:

FLIR flyover
k9 walk by
knock and talk
electricity consumption check
surveillance
IF all of these fail even after a snitch and they have exhausted resources THEN they can get a wiretap but not before.

also, the statement of a codefendant that is snitching is not by itself sufficient for a conviction!


orcival, carnivore is equally scary data mining. but i think they only look for the big boys. for those people with 6 medically licensed plants in their closet for personal use its no sweat..

carnivore does filters back bones

magic lantern is the application they infect suspect PCs with to do surveillance

good things is the companies that make LEOs technology show it off and shop it first

the large data mining efforts look for trends

the real resource they do have available is Bush made available military technology to local LEO

so if they wanted to they can simply request training and access to surveillance satellites

the bottom line to survival is LEO are typical predator mentality people

they go for the low hanging fruit so don't be attractive target

 

[qbert]

also, the statement of a codefendant that is snitching is not by itself sufficient for a conviction!

yeah, but if you end up in a conspiracy charge and that's your defense, guess what? You're fucked.

 

[freakedout]

Nope, he could be lying. How would the police know if he was telling the truth?

It happened to me in 2001, "my friend manufactured" a story so the police could secure a search warrant and searched my house. (non-drug related).

I beat them in court at prelim hearing, as I had computer forensic evidence and witnesses that proved I was at home instead of trying to sell something illegal to my friend across town at the same time.

I put myself in the sights of police and local city government by running a web site that criticized our local city government at the time. apprently my friend at the time didn't like it. and with the assistance of one dirty cop, they came after me. in the end i won. but it cost me some $$$.

9 years later, the cop was recently terminated and charged with a crime himself, he got off easy..like they always do, and my freind that help set this up was just recently popped for 3 drug related felonies....I freaking love Karma...just knew it was a matter of time.... bottom line, they will do anything..including lying to get their warrant.

 

[Two12sKnockin]

no qbert, it is established law that the testimony of someone who is themselves facing criminal charges is by itself NOT enough to produce a conviction. this MAY vary from state to state but I have never seen a case where someone's word was enough.

if that was true anybody who gets popped could just say oh it was So-and-so who put me up to it and that would be the end of it. there is no due process there. there has to be evidence beyond that of the testimony of a defendant.

 

[Pythagllio]

^^^You need to check out Federal drug conspiracy statutes.

 

[sorcival]

It is also true that Leo will get an informer to pay for and press a warrant BEFORE they
take it to a judge for an entry warrant. Should the information that the informer gives to
Leo prove to be correct and true, THEN the Leo will get the informer to drop the original
warrant and the State or the Fed will pick it up and prosecute. Tricky lil suckers , wot?
Lots of my buds and a relative or two have found this out the hard way...and they are
still waiting the parole time or hard times out too.

 

[qbert]

no qbert, it is established law that the testimony of someone who is themselves facing criminal charges is by itself NOT enough to produce a conviction. this MAY vary from state to state but I have never seen a case where someone's word was enough.

I don't dispute that. In fact, by letter of the law what you say is entirely true and comes from our US Supreme Court's precedents.


But you may be surprised if you look more into what is needed for corroborating evidence of a co-conspirator's testimony. If your co-conspirator testifies that you two went to McD's and then drove and sold to a narc, a McD's receipt from that day would be enough corroborating evidence. Not everything testified too has to be corroborated.

Through conspiracy in front of the official charge and it gets even worse. The things one could innocently do that can be considered action in furtherance of the conspiracy...


I'm telling ya man, from serious experience, don't try winning these battles in court. The system is SERIOUSLY stacked against defendants and there are ENORMOUS loopholes through which they can shove people into jails/prisons.