What you say may be true, but we don't know that. We've also heard that the guy worked two jobs, which is not usual for a dedicated pot dealer. It also doesn't make sense to me that this guy, if he knew that it was the cops coming in, would go for a handgun over a couple of ounces of pot - what good could come of it for him? Adding a couple attempted murder, resisting arrest, etc charges to whatever posession of a couple of oz of pot was going to cost him.
I still believe that no-knock raids like this are overly dangerous to all involved when the only crime involved is drug dealing. Civilians, sometimes innocent, and cops are getting killed just to prevent someone from flushing a bit of some substance down the toilet before the cops can get in.
unfortunatly the "rapid knock" raids are because of the dealers who go for the guns.
I did take the liberty of running his name through the public records of dade and broward.
Nothing in Dade, and he only had three 2004 tickets, one in 2003, one in 2002, one in 2001, and a witness subpoena for an accident in 1999. This does not cover any juvenile criminal records which are not public record.
It does not make sense to go for the gun. It also does not make sense to go for the "full swat" team unless they had something on video or audio.
I think the reason he was going for the gun is that he did not believe it was police but rather competition.