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Virginia Federal Drug Post-Arrest Investigation

In many cases, one of the first steps in a Virginia federal drug investigation after an arrest is to talk to law enforcement and give your side of the story. Although this may seem like a straight-forward step, what you say can be used against you in court and can ultimately put you at a disadvantage. For this reason, it is important to have an experienced attorney by your side who can help guide you through the legal process and try to give you the most reduced penalties.

How Post Arrest Investigations Are Conducted

Each case varies, and as such the specific circumstances of your case will determine if federal agents will continue to investigate you while your case is in court. If you were indicted, the government probably has enough information on you to go forward from the moment you are indicted. If you are arrested before they have had an opportunity to indict you, there is a good chance they will continue to investigate, because they might not have the full case against you.

In addition, whether government investigators will take all of your computers and phones depends on the nature of the charges against you and what law enforcement is saying you did. In most circumstances, for example, a drug arrest is going to involve alleged activity that would include computers or phones, so you should expect that they would obtain search warrants for those items, collect them, and do a full forensic evaluation of them.

The government will also go to foreign countries to investigate if you are charged with criminal activity outside of the United States. The government has agents stationed all over the world and they will investigate if they think that a case involves anything internationally.

Protecting Your Assets While Incarcerated

Every case is different and every prosecutor is different, so it is difficult to predict exactly what investigators might do with any specificity until the lawyer knows all the facts and the players. In cases where the government is seeking to go after some of your assets, an attorney can try to negotiate with them about the level of seizure that they intend to pursue.

With that said, if you are in jail and are not released on bond, there is nothing you can do to prevent authorities from attempting to talk to your family members because they have a right to investigate the case. Your family members, however, do not need to comply, and your attorney can try to run interference and control the environment in which they are questioned. Overall, though, there is nothing you can do to prevent federal authorities from questioning people who are close to you.

Benefit of A Federal Drug Attorney

A criminal defense attorney can help during an investigation by attempting to control the government’s investigation.  This can be done by limiting access to you and those close to you and educating everybody involved to what exactly the government is looking to do. While an attorney is not entitled to obstruct the investigation, an attorney can make suggestions to those who might be involved in the investigation as to how to proceed in a way that protects the client.