## Facts

- Colombian nationals Roberth William Villegas Rojas, Jaime Gonzalo Castibl Cabalcante, Oscar Orlando Barrera Pineda, and Julio Hernando Moya Buitrago participated in a large cocaine-trafficking scheme aimed at the United States.
- The charged conduct involved attempts to move thousands of kilograms of cocaine by sea for unlawful importation into the United States.
- Law enforcement intercepted the shipments before any cocaine physically entered U.S. territory.
- The government prosecuted the defendants under federal statutes that criminalize manufacturing and distribution abroad when done intending or knowing the drugs will be unlawfully imported into the United States.
- A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas indicted the defendants for (1) conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. § 963 tied to importation-related offenses under 21 U.S.C. §§ 959–960, and (2) aiding and abetting distribution under 21 U.S.C. § 959 and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (as to three defendants).
- After a three-week jury trial, all four defendants were convicted on the conspiracy count; three were also convicted on the aiding-and-abetting count.
- The district court imposed lengthy prison sentences (including a 235-month concurrent sentence for Rojas), and the defendants appealed their convictions and sentences.

## Issues

1. Whether 21 U.S.C. §§ 959 and 963 constitutionally apply to foreign nationals whose conduct occurred entirely outside the United States when the drugs were intercepted before entry.
2. Whether Congress had authority (including under the Foreign Commerce Clause and treaty-related powers) to criminalize foreign manufacturing/distribution intended or known to result in unlawful U.S. importation.
3. Whether the evidence and trial/sentencing rulings were sufficient to sustain the individual defendants’ convictions and sentences.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences of all four defendants.
- The court held that 21 U.S.C. §§ 959 and 963 are constitutional as applied to foreign conduct aimed at unlawful importation into the United States.
- The court held that §§ 959 and 963 apply extraterritorially and do not require proof that cocaine actually entered the United States.
- The court concluded the evidence supported findings that each defendant knowingly and voluntarily joined the conspiracy and acted to help it succeed, and it rejected the remaining challenges to the convictions and sentences.

## Legal Principles

- Section 959 reaches manufacturing or distribution of controlled substances outside the United States when done intending or knowing the substances will be unlawfully imported into the United States.
- Section 963’s conspiracy prohibition extends coextensively with the extraterritorial reach of the underlying narcotics offenses.
- For § 963 conspiracy, the government must prove a narcotics-law conspiracy existed and that each defendant knew of it, intended to join it, and voluntarily participated.
- Actual importation and physical entry of drugs into U.S. territory are not elements of §§ 959 or 963 when the charged theory is foreign manufacture/distribution with intent or knowledge of unlawful U.S. importation.
- Congress may criminalize foreign narcotics trafficking aimed at the U.S. market as a valid exercise of federal power over foreign commerce and in alignment with international drug-control obligations.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit sustained extraterritorial narcotics convictions under 21 U.S.C. §§ 959 and 963, holding that foreign manufacturing and distribution intended or known to lead to unlawful U.S. importation is prosecutable even when authorities intercept the drugs before they reach the United States.


United States v. Rojas, 812 F.3d 382 (5th Cir. 2016)