Pubdate: Thu, 22 Sep 2005
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: Michael A. Scarcella
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

COCAINE EVIDENCE ALLOWED IN TRIAL

BRADENTON -- About 9 pounds of cocaine seized by police during a drug 
traffic stop this year can be admitted at trial despite defense 
arguments that the stop was illegal, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Attorneys for Sarasota residents Milton Borjas Delacruz and Arturo 
Oviedo argued that Bradenton police had no basis to stop the vehicle 
in which the men were riding Feb. 23 on Cortez Road in Bradenton.

The defense attorneys said, among other things, that police used an 
unreliable confidential informant who was in custody when he said he 
would help investigators.

Also, authorities did not see a traffic violation before a sheriff's 
deputy stopped Delacruz's car in the 4400 block of 67th Street West.

But Judge Peter Dubensky said police had enough background details 
about the suspect to make a stop, confront the man, arrest him and 
search his car.

Detectives knew the type of car Delacruz was driving, where he was 
going and what he looked like. The confidential informant recognized 
Delacruz in a driver's license photo. Surveillance teams were in 
place along Cortez Road, and Delacruz drove into a trap.

He and Oviedo were arrested at gunpoint before the pair could deliver 
the cocaine to associates in a house where other drug deals have 
taken place, authorities said.

"His (Delacruz's) name came up as one of the biggest drug dealers 
around here," Bradenton police Detective Mike Skoumal said Wednesday.

The confidential informant, meanwhile, is charged in federal court 
with drug and weapons violations.

He was arrested during a traffic stop the morning of Feb. 23 and, 
within hours, arranged a deal to entrap Delacruz the same day, police said.

Oviedo and Delacruz could face life in prison if they are convicted. 
Trial is scheduled for November.

Delacruz had a trafficking conviction dropped in 2003 when an 
appellate court ruled that prosecutors had not linked him to a small 
brick of cocaine found in a kitchen cupboard in his house in Sarasota.
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