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United States of America v. Epifanio Matos-Luchi, Manolo Soto-Perez

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Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Boudin and Lipez, Circuit Judges. Ricardo R. Morel for appellants.

This appeal by several defendants convicted of drug trafficking–Epifanio Matos-Luchi, Manolo Soto-Perez, and Ramon Carrasco-Carrasco–requires the interpretation of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (“MDLEA”), 46 U.S.C. §§ 70501 et seq. (2006), which inter alia delineates federal enforcement authority over drug crimes carried on at sea outside U.S. territorial limits. The factual background and proceedings in the district court are as follows.

In May 2007, Petty Officer Richard Young and a team of five other U.S. Coast Guard personnel were stationed on the HMS Ocean, a British aircraft carrier, to assist with law enforcement efforts in the Carribean Sea. On May 12, the Coast Guard team deployed in a helicopter to investigate a low-flying airplane spotted in the vicinity; from the air, they saw the plane drop several bale-shaped packages into the sea about thirty to thirty-five miles from the coast of the Dominican Republic.*fn1

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