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Brothers arrested for drug possession in Portland train station

Oregon police search for drugs in a lot of different places. Depending on the circumstances of the search, police may need a warrant to search people or their belongings.

In a recent case, Oregon police were carrying out an undercover operation at Portland's Amtrak station. At the station, plain clothes officers were asking member of a crowd if they could search their bags with a drug dog. According to officers, as they were making their way through the crowd, two men quickly tried to leave the line. Police say they caught up with the men -- two brothers -- and asked for their consent to search their bags with the dogs. Police say that the men agreed to the search.

During the search, the drug dogs apparently reacted positively which indicated that drugs may be present in the bags which police said gave them probable cause to search the bags themselves. During this search, police say that they found several vacuum sealed bags containing marijuana. Once the drugs were found police continued a search of the men which included other bags and a cell phone. Police claim that these searches lead to more evidence of drug trafficking -- in total 9,769.3 grams of marijuana was found.

Both men were arrested. They were charged with unlawful delivery of marijuana, unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful manufacture of marijuana. Each man has plead not guilty to the drug charges.

In this case, and others involving serious drug charges, people should make sure that the police followed all search and seizure rules. These men should question whether the police had the authority to conduct any searches of the men, and whether the dog's reaction gave the police the probable cause necessary to continue with more invasive searches of the bags in the men's possession. If any of these searches was illegal, evidence found may be thrown out of court.

Source: KOIN, "MN brothers arrested at Union Station," Brent Weisberg, Aug. 7, 2013

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