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Plain Dealer: Sneak-and-peaks escalate from 87 in '06 to 1,145 in '09; most in drug searches and some disguised as burglaries

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

An important news story on sneak-and-peak warrants: Federal investigators used delayed-notice search warrant to help crack Greater Cleveland heroin ring by James Ewinger in The Cleveland Plain Dealer: A little-known federal law that allows investigators to carry out a search warrant without the suspect's knowledge contributed to the smashing of a major heroin ring in the area last week. The tool was put in place as part of anti-terrorism laws passed by Congress after the 9/11 attacks on American soil. The implement was rarely employed in its first years, but records show investigators nationally are increasingly pulling it from their belts. Some in the legal profession are jittery that the law can be abused and question whether federal judges should allow these warrants for offenses other than suspected terrorism...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 26, 2010 (boomark / email).