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Drug Trafficking Defense
The word “trafficking” suggests cartels. Florida's trafficking statute, § 893.135, doesn't require selling anything — possession alone of a threshold weight is trafficking, and the weight includes the entire mixture, not the pure drug. Twenty-one pain pills can out-weigh the oxycodone threshold. Four grams of pressed pills containing any fentanyl — less than a teaspoon — triggers a 7-year mandatory minimum. These are the harshest routinely-charged sentences in Florida law, and judges have no discretion to go below the minimums after conviction.
That is why trafficking cases are defended differently from any other drug case — and why the lawyer must be involved before decisions about statements, phones, and cooperation are made. Call or text 407-846-8008 immediately.
Current Trafficking Thresholds & Mandatory Minimums
All trafficking offenses are first-degree felonies. The tiers that matter most in Central Florida:
Fentanyl & analogues (raised in 2022 — much online information is outdated)
• 4 to under 14 grams: 7 years minimum, $50,000 fine
• 14 to under 28 grams: 20 years, $100,000
• 28 grams or more: 25 years, $500,000
• Selling a disguised fentanyl product (candy-lookalike, cartoon imprints) is a separate first-degree felony with its own 3-year minimum — and delivering 4+ grams to a minor in disguised form can mean 25-to-life.
Cocaine: 28g–<200g: 3 years / $50,000 · 200g–<400g: 7 years / $100,000 · 400g–<150kg: 15 years / $250,000 · 150kg+: life.
Methamphetamine: 14g–<28g: 3 years · 28g–<200g: 7 years · 200g+: 15 years.
Oxycodone: starts at just 7 grams (3 years); 25g–<100g is already 15 years and a $500,000 fine. Hydrocodone starts at 28 grams.
Cannabis: more than 25 pounds or 300+ plants (3 years), rising at 2,000 lbs (7 years) and 10,000 lbs (15 years).
New — xylazine (“tranq”): effective October 1, 2026, Florida added xylazine trafficking tiers (28 grams: 3 years; 100 grams: 7 years; 200 grams: 25 years) — among the first states to do so.
How Trafficking Cases Are Fought
• The weight itself. Lab weighing methodology, mixture versus multiple packages, moisture in cannabis, aggregation of separate stashes — moving a case below a threshold line removes the mandatory minimum entirely.
• Suppression. Trafficking evidence comes from wiretaps, trackers, controlled buys, parcel interdictions, and highway stops — each with constitutional requirements that can fail. No drugs, no case.
• Constructive possession (see Drug Possession) — couriers, passengers, and residents of shared homes are charged on proximity the law doesn't support.
• Entrapment in reverse-sting operations, where law enforcement supplies the drugs and sets the weight — sometimes choosing a quantity precisely to trigger a higher minimum.
• Substantial assistance (§ 893.135(4)). The only statutory route below a mandatory minimum is a State motion based on assistance to law enforcement. It is a perilous path that should never be walked without counsel negotiating the terms first — promises made in a traffic stop or an interrogation room are not enforceable deals.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm a user, not a dealer — the pills were for me.
Under this statute, intent to sell isn't required — weight alone can convict. But treatment-based mitigation and charge reduction below the threshold are real outcomes with the right presentation.
Police asked me to “work it off.” Should I?
Not without a lawyer and a written agreement. Informal cooperation without protection has left people with both the danger and the sentence.
Can a trafficking charge be bonded out?
Bond exists but is set high, and in larger cases the State may seek pretrial detention or source-of-funds hearings. Early counsel shapes this.
Do federal charges apply too?
They can — fentanyl and large-weight cases get adopted federally, where different (sometimes better, sometimes worse) rules apply. The state defense should account for any federal exposure from day one.
Mandatory Minimums Mean Mandatory Defense
Once a jury says guilty, the sentence is arithmetic. Everything, therefore, happens before that moment. Call or text 407-846-8008 for a free consultation with former prosecutor Chad Seibel. Office visits are by appointment only.