POSSESSION OF COCAINE CAN BE PROVEN WITHOUT SUBMITTING THE COCAINE ITSELF AS EVIDENCE.
The Court of Appeals, in a short memorandum decision, noted that possession of cocaine can be proven without submitting the cocaine itself as evidence:
Although the People did not recover or introduce any of the cocaine that defendant was charged with possessing, “direct evidence in the form of contraband or other physical evidence is not the only adequate proof” (People v Samuels , 99 NY2d 20, 24 [2002]). The People presented sufficient evidence in the form of, among other things, defendant’s intercepted phone calls replete with drug-related conversations, visual surveillance, and the testimony of cooperating witnesses. People v Whitehead, 2017 NY Slip Op 02358, CtApp 3-28-17