Bilingual detectives are an advantage to any police department. The problems that they solve cross boundaries that have existed for many years. However, problems can also arise that are exclusive to a bilingual undercover investigation. A New York DWI Lawyer said one such case occurred in 1983, when a bilingual detective named Ramos worked for the New York City Police Department. He had been a detective for more than fifteen years at the time of this particular trial. He was assigned to work on the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force. The objective of this task force was to apprehend persons who were primarily dealers of drugs at a level that is above the street level dealer who does hand to hand sales for five or ten dollars each. The goal was to apprehend the dealers who supply the street level dealer.
On July 16, 1981, Ramos contacted a dealer and told him that he wanted to purchase a large amount of drugs. Ramos had been assigned to a particular area and had worked for months to infiltrate the drug scene in that area. The street level dealer told Ramos that he had a contact that could supply the cocaine that Ramos had indicated that he was interested in purchasing. A A New York DWI Lawyer said the street level dealer contacted Ramos and with him present, called the upper level dealer. Ramos testified at trial that he told Ramos that the street level dealer had informed him that Ramos was a reliable person and that he had the product that Ramos wanted to purchase.
Several attempts to meet past by because one or the other was not able to make the meeting. When a meeting was finally arranged, the upper level dealer explained to Ramos in Spanish that he would be meeting him and gave him a description of his clothing and the type of vehicle that he would be in. Ramos advised him that he would be driving a red truck. When the meeting occurred, an Hispanic man approached Ramos and Ramos invited him to sit in the truck to talk. Ramos had a back up officer with him for the meeting. The two discussed an on-going criminal relationship of purchasing large amounts of cocaine. The upper level dealer advised him that he would be able to purchase one pound of cocaine for $29,000. However, he stated that he would first have to purchase a smaller amount so that he could see that Ramos was not an undercover police officer. The smaller purchase was made and the two made arrangements to meet the following day to conduct the larger purchase.
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