Houston Drug Trafficking Lawyer

Texas law doesn’t have a crime called “drug trafficking.” In a Harris County courtroom, trafficking means a manufacture or delivery charge, which includes possession with intent to deliver, and at the top weight levels those charges start at 10 years and run to life (20 years minimum for 400 grams or more of fentanyl). In federal court it means distribution or conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846, where the weight sets a mandatory minimum the judge usually can’t go below. Which system your case lands in, and what the government can actually prove about the weight and your role in it, decides most of what happens next.

Call (713) 664-4000. If agents or officers want to “talk about your options” or ask you to cooperate, talk to us first. That conversation can help you or hurt you badly, depending on how it’s set up.

Texas trafficking penalties

For Penalty Group 1 drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin and oxycodone, the weight includes everything the drug is mixed with (Health and Safety Code § 481.112).

Weight	Manufacture, delivery or possession with intent (Group 1)	Fentanyl (Group 1-B, § 481.1123)
Under 1 gram	State jail felony	Third-degree felony
1 to 4 grams	Second-degree felony, 2 to 20 years	Second-degree felony
4 to 200 grams	First-degree felony, 5 to 99 years or life, up to $10,000 fine	10 to 99 years or life, up to $20,000 fine
200 to 400 grams	10 to 99 years or life, up to $100,000 fine	15 to 99 years or life, up to $200,000 fine
400 grams or more	15 to 99 years or life, up to $250,000 fine	20 to 99 years or life, up to $500,000 fine

Delivering more than 50 pounds of marijuana is a first-degree felony, and more than 2,000 pounds carries 10 to 99 years or life and up to a $100,000 fine (§ 481.120). Texas has no possession-with-intent charge for marijuana, so a large load with no proof of a sale or an offer to sell is charged as possession, a second-degree felony from 50 to 2,000 pounds (§ 481.121). When three or more people are involved, prosecutors often add engaging in organized criminal activity (Penal Code § 71.02). Since September 2025, arranging a delivery over social media bumps the punishment up a level too (Health and Safety Code § 481.142). That charge is usually one step above the drug offense, and when the drug offense is already a first-degree felony, the minimum sentence goes up five years and the maximum fine doubles. And since September 1, 2023, if someone dies from fentanyl you made or delivered, Texas can charge you with murder, even if the person who died wasn’t the one you handed it to (§ 19.02(b)(4)). Our Houston drug charges page covers the penalty groups and possession grading.

Federal trafficking charges and mandatory minimums

Houston is a major corridor for drugs coming up from the border, so the DEA, HSI, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas bring a lot of these cases. Under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1), the quantity sets the floor.

Drug	5-year minimum (up to 40 years)	10-year minimum (up to life)
Cocaine	500 grams	5 kilograms
Crack cocaine	28 grams	280 grams
Heroin	100 grams	1 kilogram
Fentanyl	40 grams	400 grams
Methamphetamine	50 grams (5 grams pure)	500 grams (50 grams pure)
Marijuana	100 kilograms or 100 plants	1,000 kilograms or 1,000 plants

If the prosecutor files notice of a prior serious drug felony or serious violent felony, the 10-year minimum becomes 15, and two priors make it 25. If the government can prove the drug actually caused a death or serious injury, the minimum is 20 years. A conspiracy charge under § 846 carries the same penalties as the deal itself, and the government only has to prove you agreed to it, not that you ever touched the drugs. There’s no parole in the federal system. Good-conduct credit takes off at most about 15 percent, and while some people can earn more time off through First Step Act credits or the prison drug program, you should plan on serving most of the sentence. The way under a mandatory minimum is usually the safety valve (18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)). If your record is light enough to pass a strict test (since the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Pulsifer v. United States, one prior sentence of more than 13 months can knock you out), you had no gun and used no violence, nobody was killed or badly hurt, and you weren’t a leader, the judge has to sentence without regard to the minimum. The catch is that by the sentencing hearing you must have told the government everything you know about the offense and the related conduct, including what other people did, and how that conversation happens is something we plan carefully. See our pages on federal drug charges and drug conspiracy.

How we defend trafficking cases

The search. Big seizures come out of highway stops, search warrants, wiretaps and GPS trackers, and every one of those has rules. A traffic stop can’t be dragged out to wait for a dog without reasonable suspicion. A warrant built on an informant has to give the judge a real reason to believe the tip, either the informant’s track record or police corroboration of the details. Wiretaps have to meet strict statutory requirements, and getting your phone’s location history from the carrier generally takes a warrant (Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018)). When the search fails, the drugs usually go with it.

Your connection to the drugs. Trafficking cases are full of people who were in the wrong car or the wrong house: the driver who didn’t pack the trunk, the roommate, the girlfriend whose name is on the lease, the person who gave someone a ride. The State has to prove you knew the drugs were there and exercised control over them. Being close to them isn’t enough.

Intent to deliver. Prosecutors build intent out of the quantity, the packaging, scales, cash and text messages. Every one of those has an innocent explanation in some cases, and the phone extraction often says less than the officer’s report claims. Knocking out intent turns the case into possession, and at 4 to 200 grams that takes a first-degree felony down to second degree. At higher weights it still lowers the minimum.

Weight and the lab. In both systems, the charge depends on how much was seized, so we check how the lab weighed it, including whether packaging or liquid was counted, and whether separately seized batches were combined to get over a threshold. Jay Blass Cohen is an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist trained in forensic chromatography, and we read the lab’s instrument data and chain of custody ourselves.

Cooperators. Most conspiracy cases rest on people who were arrested first and are testifying for a lighter sentence. What they were promised, and how their stories changed between the first interview and the witness stand, are fair game on cross-examination, and we get that material through discovery.

Seized cash and property

Money and property found with drugs are usually seized for forfeiture in a separate civil case. In Texas, the State has 30 days from the seizure to file (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 59.04), and if the owner doesn’t answer in time, the court can enter a default judgment and the property is gone, whatever happens in the criminal case. Federal forfeiture has its own short deadlines. We handle both.

Results

A Harris County charge of possession with intent to deliver more than 400 grams of cocaine (46 kilos) was dismissed. See more of our case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Charged with drug trafficking in Houston? Call Blass Law

Jay Blass Cohen has defended drug cases in Houston state and federal courts since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We’ll go after the search and the weight before anyone talks about a plea or cooperation.

Call (713) 664-4000. If you were arrested or your property was seized this week, call now. The forfeiture clock is already running.