Ghost Dope
Before my indictment, I had never heard the term ghost dope. When I found out that the federal indictment I was facing had zero physical evidence against me and was based solely on statements made by people, aka “ghost dope”, I went to work to find out anything I could about this new concept I had never knew existed. I searched the internet tirelessly trying to find more about this ghost I did not even know existed that was now haunting me. I do not know what is available now, but back in 2014 there was not much available to read. Just a few blogs telling me things I did not want to hear. If you cannot find much about something on the internet, there is a pretty good chance most people do not know about it and if they know, they sure aren’t talking about it. I would have to say that ghost dope is one of the federal governments most hushed evidentiary concepts. Once you grasp the concept of the ghosts used by the federal government to fill the prisons, mass incarceration will no longer be a mystery. I think it is time to challenge some of the practices used to take away the precious commodity of time for so many people in this country. So, allow me to introduce you to the ghosts that hold so many prisoners behind bars.
I have wanted to write this blog for a while now but the thought of writing about ghost dope made me nervous. After spending three years on pretrial and serving over three years in federal prison, I have had some time to think a lot about my situation and learn more about the people around me and what brought them to prison. The more I have conversations and learn about the people around me and their stories, the heavier it weighed on my heart to write this. I put some thought into what I was so afraid of and what was holding me back from being the voice for people that do not have one. Then it hit me, I felt as though I was about to expose some big secret and that terrified me. Ghost dope, ghost guns, ghost money, and conspiracies have quite a long history in this country and they are no secret but they sure seem to be hidden behind the veil of secrecy that secludes prisons and sentencing practices tend to operate. The veil that keeps these ghosts nicely hidden and tucked away out of sight and out of mind just like their victims that are kept in prison. People are convicted every single day because of these ghosts, it is not a secret, there is just no reason for it to be a conversation held by the majority of people. Unfortunately, by the time you are talking about, it is too late.
I committed to writing this blog after I decided to break the unspoken rule and really start talking to people around me about their case. You see in prison; we do not sit around talking about or cases. By the time you arrive, you have pretty much been defeated by the crazy train that brought you here and most people just shut up and do their time, and the majority here, as well as most inmates in federal prison, are doing a lot of it. As I started to ask questions and learned more and more about the people that live around me, I was sickened. I found myself frantically searching for anyone that was here for actual evidence and not a ghost of some kind. At this camp, it is hard to find. There are some people that are here for an actual number of drugs, but most had cases that were extremely inflated by statements made by unsavory characters looking to make a deal. It is sickening to find out how unimportant physical evidence is in the federal system when mandatory minimum sentences are passed out like candy by judges that have no discretion or wiggle room to make exceptions.
Let me explain ghost dope. When a federal drug case is being made against someone, officials take statements from anyone who will make them. Any person in the surrounding area caught with any kind of drug, or paraphernalia, will be asked on the spot about the person in which the federal case is being made. If the person in trouble says they know the person the feds are looking to make a case against, and they have a story to tell, they get to make a statement and possibly receive a get out of jail free card. These are not exactly great citizens with real credible stories. These people are in trouble, that is why they are in the presence of the police. These statements can be made to any police officer in the jurisdiction of the case being made, it does not have to be a federal agent. Local police with vendettas and agendas can really take advantage of this situation and not have to worry about anyone batting an eye.
If these potential informants are caught with drugs there is a good chance they are already high or about to be. Either way, they do not want to go to jail and they certainly do not want to part ways with the streets where they can just go get some more drugs to get high, thus their state of consciousness is altered and what they would say on a good sober day might just drastically differ then what they would say on this day. As obvious as this is to me, it certainly is not considered.
If that person being questioned decides to say they once saw you with x amount of drugs and make the statement to the police, it is reported and that amount is documented and added to the discovery of the person the federal government is making a case against. Whatever amount this unsavory character has decided to say, without producing any evidence to support what they are saying, or even questioned on a later date to confirm, is added to the grand total of the case. This amount is added to however many amounts from other statements taken just like this, from other people that are not credible either, and added together to come up with a weight from all the imaginary drugs. This weight is what the federal government uses to charge the person they are making a case against. Then the poor devil that has been buried by words from foes goes before the federal judge whose hands are tied, and has little room for discretion with the mandatory minimums that are in place, and a hefty sentence is given. This is the essence of ghost dope and this happens every day in this country.
This is not just limited to drugs. The same goes for guns and money with the federal system. Federal conspiracies are normally used to catch the low-level users in hopes of using them to catch bigger fish. The state system is quite different. They require proof of what someone is saying, and people cannot just point the finger and tell a story. Only in the federal arena, where the hefty sentences are passed out, is this allowed.
That addict that is about to go to jail can avoid going altogether and make a quick friend with the feds if they have a good tale to tell about someone. A tale that is taken and treated like it is the word of God and written by Moses, but it is not. It is made by someone with an agenda to avoid incarceration themselves. A person that is not exactly credible, and the statement is then given to the police, or someone with an agenda, to put a case together. It truly is that simple.
I remember the beginning of my indictment when I had my first opportunity to review my very large discovery. Part of me was relieved as I read and realized that so much of it was a mistake and really was not me. More than one person providing statements in my discovery was talking about some woman that went to places I had never gone and stayed at length at places I had never stayed. These were public places with cameras that I thought for sure would simply clear me of some of this mess. I was wrong.
As I dissected my discovery, I figured out who a lot of the people were who made statements. It was heart breaking to read some and others were just simply insulting. I had to wonder if the storyteller actually thought these crazy stories were going to go anywhere or just get them out of jail for the day. I took detailed notes rebutting each statement and my heart dropped through my shoes when I found out you couldn’t just say “hey Mr. Fed, these reports aren’t actually me and these are wrong. It looks like you made some mistakes so will you please change this?” No that is not how this plays out. You are the liar whether you like it or not and whether you lied or not. You are doomed. That statement becomes a ghost that will haunt you until you are sentenced.
What I found most interesting is how many of these people gave similar statements about someone that was not me. How could they possibly have come to those conclusions and made these similar mistakes and identified someone that was not me?
I read report after report from each person that cooperated with police and shared stories with officials. These stories added up to become the evidence against me because there was no physical evidence. Some of the stories were blatant lies and some were incredibly inflated. You see, I was not innocent. My addiction put the steering wheel in my back and drove me off into the depths of the drug world and while I was never caught with any amount of drugs, EVER, and I had never sold to any undercover, I was under the impression that I couldn’t be convicted. I was not a felon and I had no criminal history. However, the feds don’t need any physical evidence. Their case is stronger without it and using ghosts instead. This is because you cannot successfully fight a ghost of any kind.
I want to be perfectly clear that my indictment saved my life and provided the only viable extraction to get me out of the drug world. I also had an angel that went to bat for me to remove some of the false statements and save me from a very long time in prison. I am grateful for my experience and grateful to those who helped me so much.
After all I have been through and all the people I have met that have all been through so much, I can’t help but strongly disagree with the institution and the procedures that bring us to incarceration.
You might be thinking that I am leaving something out. If you have never had a federal indictment or had a loved one suffer through the process; you would never have a clue of what takes place. For my personal part of the huge indictment I was involved in, there was zero physical evidence. Let me be perfectly clear… I have NEVER in my life been caught with drugs or paraphernalia. No drugs have EVER been found at my home or in any of my vehicles. I have never sold to an undercover officer of any kind and there is no hand to hand transactions. There is no wiretap. The only evidence against me was statements made by people that were in trouble. It was a ghost that brought me to prison.
A lot of rational people might wonder why you would take a plea and not try and fight it. Well let me tell you again, you cannot fight a ghost. Fighting the federal government is a losing battle, especially when all they need is a ghost to take you down. How would you ever disprove a made-up tale by someone?
There are ladies here that tried to fight their case because there was no physical evidence and they mistakenly thought they had a shot. They failed miserably. By taking their case to trial, many ended up with at least double the time. You cannot fight the federal government and you cannot fight a ghost; I cannot say it enough.
People are sitting around scratching their heads at the problem of mass incarceration that is downright embarrassing. It appears people cannot figure out where we have gone wrong. Well allow me to make some suggestions. If the federal laws, procedures, and sentencing guidelines were to change today and only real tangible, physical evidence was required to incarcerate someone, a huge amount of mass incarceration would be eliminated. If this were to change and the BOP had to let go anyone that was sentenced based on a ghost, the amount of people that would walk out the prison doors would shock this nation.
In conclusion, I believe the people in this country need to be aware of these quiet, but very accepted practices and tactics used to incarcerate so many people. If you truly want to talk about reform, mandatory minimums and the lack of evidence needed to make them stick needs to be the center stage and the focus of the conversations. Nowhere else in the justice system is imaginary evidence used other than for federal crimes There is too much discretion and grey area that leave defendants at the mercy of the feds. I believe that if enough people had a good peek behind the veil of secrecy in which the federal government operates, the fear and misconception that holds people back from fully supporting prison reform, would change drastically. The ghosts that haunt us prisoners and have robbed us of so much of our time, need to be eliminated. It is time for ghosts and conspiracies to go away.
