It wasn’t until Day 3 of Nesto’s trial that one huge aspect of this trial became clear: Finding those 5 kilos of coke in Nesto’s house was a big, big deal to the Taunton police. A “once in a career seizure,” as Dennis Ledo, from New Bedford’s crime unit put it.
Oh. (Silly me; I thought such an amount to be, you know, routine.)
So. Besides the usual possibility that the police might have misinterpreted “the pieces of the puzzle,” as Taunton police officer Troy Medeiros put it, and the usual possibility of racial profiling, Nesto’s case was also about a BIG Deal Seizure. That must have been pretty exciting!
Oh.
And, unfortunately, this must be said: How could I sit in that shabby courtroom and NOT wonder if, given Bedford County’s rampant drug economy, that police corruption might not be part of The Big (and VERY exciting) Picture, too?
Oh, yeah: This, too: Those drugs were discovered 5 years ago. So when the very first witness, Taunton police officer Deborah Lavoie, admitted she was a bit hazy on what had happened on March 31, 2005, that made perfect sense.
Oh, dear.
To learn more about The War on Drugs and a much-needed perspective from former police officers, I urge you to check out Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s website: http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php (LEAP can also be found in Links)
Ummm, where is your argument here? Five kilos is, yes, a big deal ($200,000 worth of cocaine that a trafficker would happily kill your family over an unpaid debt over). If Bedford County exists, I’m sure its riddled with corruption, but let’s focus on the actually-existing Bristol County for starters, which is not. You pose a few possibilities, which I’m sure sure Puff the Magic Dragon might testify to, but fail to present a solid argument for anything. Continue to present possible unfounded shortcomings, and hopefully the 99.9% honest, hard working federal, state, and local law enforcement will continue to the produce solid, legally produced evidence that the Constitution actually sought to protect.