## Facts

- Six foreign-national crew members of the Honduran-flag vessel *ROSANGEL* were interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard about 125 miles east of Fort Lauderdale on the high seas.
- Coast Guard personnel observed bale-like objects on deck, boarded the vessel, and found 114 bales of marijuana on the main deck and in the forward hold.
- After confirming Honduran registry, the Coast Guard contacted Honduras and, with the captain’s permission, remained aboard awaiting a response.
- Honduras communicated “no objection” to the boarding, search, seizure, and prosecution of the *ROSANGEL*’s crew under U.S. law.
- The crew was arrested and transported to Miami.
- Defendants were charged under 21 U.S.C. § 955a(c) with possession with intent to distribute marijuana on a vessel within U.S. “customs waters,” and they entered conditional guilty pleas after the district court denied a motion to dismiss.

## Issues

1. Whether applying 21 U.S.C. § 955a(c) to foreign nationals on a foreign vessel on the high seas, by designating “customs waters” around that vessel with flag-state consent, violates Fifth Amendment due process.
2. Whether § 955a(c)’s requirement of a “treaty or other arrangement” with the flag state demands a formal agreement, or whether an informal, case-specific “no objection” communication is sufficient.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of the motion to dismiss the indictment.
- The court held that extending “customs waters” to a specific foreign vessel on the high seas under § 955a(c), when the flag state consents, does not violate due process.
- The court held that the required “arrangement” with the foreign nation need not be formal; an informal, case-specific indication of consent satisfies the statute.
- Honduras’s “no objection” was a sufficient arrangement authorizing boarding and permitting prosecution under U.S. law.

## Legal Principles

- Congress may criminalize certain conduct on the high seas and apply the statute extraterritorially when it clearly indicates that intent.
- Under 21 U.S.C. § 955a(c), U.S. enforcement jurisdiction may be asserted over a foreign vessel on the high seas when the flag state consents by “treaty or other arrangement.”
- An “other arrangement” under § 955a(c) may be informal and vessel-specific, so long as it clearly reflects flag-state consent.
- When statutory extraterritorial reach and flag-state consent align with accepted international law practices, prosecution of foreign nationals aboard the vessel is not fundamentally unfair and does not violate due process.

## Conclusion

The court upheld § 955a(c) prosecutions of foreign crew members on a Honduran vessel intercepted on the high seas, ruling that Honduras’s informal “no objection” constituted a sufficient statutory arrangement to treat the vessel as within U.S. “customs waters” and that the resulting exercise of jurisdiction did not offend due process.


United States v. Gonzalez, 776 F.2d 931 (11th Cir. 1985)