State prosecutors expect to refile drug trafficking charges against an Ark City man busted as part of a large-scale drug blitz in January 2010.
Charges against Oscar Galindo, 41, were recently dropped based on a Neosho County ruling regarding the use of wiretaps. Galindo’s case was affected by that ruling, and so the state withdrew charges against Galindo connected to a drug blitz that took place in Ark City early last year.
“We have appealed the decision and hope to have a ruling soon,” Jeff Wagaman, a spokesperson with Kansas Attorney General’s Office, said Monday. “The state intends to refile the charges.”
The charges against Galindo were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be brought again at any time.
Galindo fled from authorities during orchestrated drug raids held in Ark City and other parts of Cowley County in 2010. More than a dozen people were arrested in connection with the efforts, which were led by the state’s attorney general’s office.
Galindo remained on the lam for a year before being arrested in January 2011. His bond was set at $500,000, but was eventually reduced and he was released.
Charges against him included conspiracy to distribute meth, cocaine or marijuana. He was accused of using a cell phone to conduct such business.
At issue in the Neosho case, is whether the state followed proper procedure in applying to intercept private communications in the drug-related case of state vs. Charles Elmer Bruce Jr.
Assistant Attorney General Steven Wilhoft applied for the order to intercept wire and electronic communications in the Bruce case. Wilhoft was also a key player in the Cowley County drug blitz and presumably applied for the wiretap in the Galindo case.
Judge Timothy E. Brazil, in a ruling throwing out the wiretap evidence in the Bruce case, said the state could not establish that then Attorney General Steve Six had been properly briefed in regard to the application for the wiretap. Brazil also said it was unclear that proper protocol was in place to properly submit such applications.
Brazil said that federal law requires that interception of private communications be approved and submitted under direction of the principal prosecutor for a particular agency, in this case then-Attorney General Six.
Brazil acknowledged that state law had been amended to allow assistant attorneys to make such applications for wiretaps, but he said it would be improper for the state to approve guidelines less stringent than what the federal law allows.
The ruling was made last month.