Background
In March two thousand and twenty-one, a United States Marine Patrol Aircraft spotted a go-fast vessel in international waters carrying approximately six hundred seventy-four kilograms of cocaine. The vessel had Ecuadorian registration documents, but the Ecuadorian government could neither confirm nor deny the vessel’s nationality. The three defendants were arrested, pleaded guilty to charges under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, and appealed their convictions and one defendant’s sentence.
The court’s reasoning
The court reviewed subject matter jurisdiction de novo and found that the vessel qualified as without nationality under the statute because the claimed nation of registry did not affirmatively assert the vessel’s nationality. The court relied on a State Department certification as conclusive proof of this status. The court rejected constitutional challenges based on prior panel precedent. Regarding the sentence, the court found the district court reasonably weighed the defendant’s criminal history, including a prior conviction while on supervised release, against mitigating circumstances.
What it means going forward
The ruling reinforces the use of State Department certifications to establish jurisdiction over vessels without nationality and limits the ability of defendants to challenge established interpretations of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.
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