There was a lot at stake for this young college student, DJ, who despite having no criminal history faced more than four years in prison after a K-9 alerted to the presence of drugs in the bed of DJ's Chevy pickup.
It started with a trip to Mexico to visit close family.
While there, a friend asked DJ to take 15 secured tile boxes to Phoenix in return for gas money. It was June 30, 2013, and DJ (along with her 80-year-old grandmother) went through the San Luis port of entry without problems.
But in Tombstone, Ariz. they ran into a US Border Patrol Checkpoint. It was there that a K-9 alerted to the drugs. Agents discovered 150 bricks of marijuana, weighing just over 152 pounds total, stashed inside the tile boxes.
The US Attorney's Office offered a deal. The deal involved a lesser prison sentence in exchange for DJ's guilty plea, but the problem was DJ wasn't guilty. Such a result would have jeopardized her career as a college student and her future.
Attorney Richard Suzuki and his investigation team went to work to prove DJ's innocence, obtaining sworn affidavits and gathering the evidence needed to make a difference in the outcome. It took six months - but just today we received word that the US Attorney's Office dismissed its case against our young client.
If you're going through what DJ went through, be it serious drug charges or any other type of criminal accusation, call Suzuki Law Offices