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A young man was at a gathering where he shook hands with a number of people who were present. He and several other people who were at the gathering were subsequently arrested, and he was charged with delivery of a controlled substance. He did not have anything on him when he was arrested and searched -- no drugs and no money. Can he be convicted of drug trafficking based upon his being observed to shake hands with other people at this gathering?
What often happens in drug trafficking cases is for the drug dealer to use an intermediary to get the money and to deliver the drugs. There may be one intermediary, or there may be two. The intermediary collects money from the buyer, and takes it to the dealer. The dealer then gives the money to the intermediary (or a second intermediary) to deliver to the customer. The exchanges can all look like handshakes, or similar casual contact.
As the police were apparently observing this activity, odds are you are looking at a controlled buy (or more than one controlled buy), in which a police officer or informant was the drug buyer. The informant or officer will testify that they gave money to the young man, that he passed drugs to them, or both. The police will also have marked money that they will have recovered from the dealer, that somehow got from the informant (or officer) to the dealer. If that's what happened, it's a strong case for the young man's having been a participant in drug dealing.