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‘Ice’ case dismissed after drugs go missing at DPS
The Office of the Attorney General was forced to drop the charges against a 64-year-old man after the evidence in the case—$100 worth of methamphetamine or “ice”—went missing at the Department of Public Safety.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho granted yesterday the OAG’s motion to dismiss with prejudice the information charging Nicholas Muña with trafficking of a controlled substance and illegal possession of a controlled substance.
Dismissed with prejudice means the case cannot be re-opened.
Muña’s jury trial was supposed to start on June 23, 2014.
On Monday, assistant attorney general Chemere K. McField asked the court to dismiss the case, saying the government is unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt because evidence upon which charges are based upon can no longer be located by DPS.
Muna, also known as Tata, was first arrested on Jan. 21, 2013, after a confidential source of the Drug Enforcement Task Force allegedly managed to buy $100 worth of “ice” from him in Chalan Piao.
According to then-Drug Enforcement Task Force detective Dennis Reyes, Muña then agreed to help law enforcers as a confidential informant, provided that police allow his release without cash bail subject to certain conditions and restrictions.
Reyes said the court allowed the agreement and sealed the case.
However, after his release, Muña did not cooperate with police in their ongoing investigations, Reyes said.
That prompted the police to re-arrest Muña in March 2013, for failing to comply with the conditions of his release.
The court then granted the OAG’s motion to revoke Muña’s release from custody. The court also granted the OAG’s request to unseal the case.
This was not the first time for evidence to go missing while under the custody of DPS. Last October, Judge Camacho dismissed all charges against two men accused of trafficking of methamphetamine or “ice” after the prosecution admitted on the third day of the jury trial that the evidence may have been substituted at DPS.
Camacho said that without the illegal controlled substance, it is impossible to find the two defendants guilty of all charges.
