In Florida, drug trafficking is a BIG deal. Every trafficking offense - whether it's trafficking in cocaine or trafficking in prescription drugs, such as oxycondone or hydrocodone - carries a mandatory prison term.
This means that regardless of your prior criminal history, or lack thereof, you are looking at a mandatory day-for-day prison term right out the gate.
If you are charged with trafficking and if police and prosecutors believe that you may possess information that could be helpful in arresting and prosecuting much larger suppliers, you may be offered an opportunity to enter into a cooperation agreement.
Should you do this?
I'm not going to give a definitive yes or no answer here in this post. That's a discussion you need to have with your criminal defense attorney.
What I can tell you is that if you are willing, it may not be a bad idea to consider the benefits of providing assistance - provided you are able to give police and prosecutors what they are looking for. If you can't, then cooperation may not be for you.
If you are offered a chance to cooperate, the first thing the detectives on your case and the prosecutor or prosecutors assigned will want to do is have what's called a "debriefing."
They will bring you and your attorney to the State Attorney's Office, they will have an immunity letter for you to sign, which grants you immunity (or the ability not to be prosecuted) for information that you are going to give them regarding narcotics and narcotics activity. Then, they will ask you questions. They will want details. They will want dates, times, accounts of what was purchased or sold, and they will want names.
If you want to protect people that may be involved in drug trafficking (prosecutors and detectives aren't interested in possession or low-level sales), then cooperation is not for you.
If you are willing to risk a mandatory prison term to protect another person, then focus on preparing your case for trial and don't bother cooperating. You MUST give names when you are cooperating with the State Attorney's Office and law enforcement.
If detectives and the prosecutors are satisfied with your debriefing, and if they believe that you will be a valuable resource to them, they may offer you a cooperation agreement.
This agreement will lay out the terms of your cooperation and if successful, there will usually be a sentence of probation and/or community control offered provided you comply with the terms of your agreement.
Failure to deliver results - which is normally three trafficking arrests - can result in prison time, even though you have given your best effort in assisting police.
Violating the agreement by not doing what you're supposed to do or picking up a new arrest can lead to instant prison. They call this the "hammer clause."
In sum, cooperating is not easy. You need to be ready and available to assist law enforcement in narcotics investigations. You may even have to do some controlled buys on behalf of police. You may even have to wear a recording device and make purchases on law enforcement's behalf.
However, this outcome may be far more favorable than rotting away in prison for a term of years.
If you are charged with trafficking, you should at the very least, have a conversation with your attorney about the pros and cons of cooperating.