## Facts

- The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a Bolivian-flagged vessel in international waters in the Caribbean while it was traveling from Colombia toward the Dominican Republic.
- The vessel carried a large quantity of controlled substances prohibited under U.S. law.
- The defendants were foreign crewmembers; none was a U.S. national, and the record did not indicate a specific U.S. connection beyond the statutory basis for prosecution.
- The defendants were prosecuted in the District of Puerto Rico and convicted of offenses under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA).
- A First Circuit panel previously affirmed the convictions; several defendants then sought panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

## Issues

1. Whether the First Circuit should grant panel rehearing or rehearing en banc to reconsider the sufficiency of the evidence supporting certain crewmembers’ MDLEA convictions.
2. Whether the First Circuit should rehear the case en banc to reconsider constitutional and international-law limits on applying the MDLEA to foreign nationals on a foreign-flagged vessel intercepted on the high seas without a specific U.S. nexus.

## Decision

- The court denied José Luis Casiano-Jiménez’s petition for panel rehearing.
- The panel denied the petitions for rehearing filed by Alberto Angulo-Hernández, Eusebio Estupinan-Estupinan, and Gustavo Rafael Brito-Fernández.
- The court denied rehearing en banc because a majority of active judges did not vote to rehear the case en banc.
- The denial of rehearing left the earlier panel decision affirming the MDLEA convictions in place.
- A dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc argued that rehearing was warranted to correct alleged errors regarding evidentiary sufficiency and extraterritorial jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- Denial of panel rehearing and rehearing en banc leaves the panel’s judgment and reasoning undisturbed and makes no new merits ruling.
- In MDLEA prosecutions, evidentiary sufficiency may turn on whether the jury could infer knowledge and participation from circumstantial evidence beyond mere presence aboard a drug-laden vessel.
- The MDLEA permits prosecution of drug-trafficking activity on certain foreign vessels when statutory jurisdictional prerequisites are satisfied (including flag-state consent or waiver of objection).
- Challenges to the MDLEA’s extraterritorial application commonly assert due process and jurisdictional limits where defendants are foreign nationals and the conduct lacks a fact-specific U.S. nexus; denial of rehearing indicates the court declined to revisit its existing approach in this case.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit denied panel rehearing and rehearing en banc, leaving intact the affirmed MDLEA convictions arising from the Coast Guard’s interdiction of a Bolivian-flagged vessel in international waters and declining to reconsider, en banc, objections concerning evidentiary sufficiency and the statute’s extraterritorial application to foreign crewmembers.


United States v. Angulo-Hernández, 576 F.3d 59 (1st Cir. 2009)