Shafer

The defendant, with others was indicted on three counts. The first count was for receiving upon importation a narcotic drug, knowing it to have been imported contrary to law. The second was for the knowing purchase of a narcotic drug which was not in or from the original stamped package. The third charged all the defendants entered into a conspiracy knowingly to import and to receive this narcotic drug into the United States from Mexico.

The second clause of the statute, 21 U.S.C.A. § 174 , under which the indict ment was drawn, makes it a crime to receive a narcotic drug upon importation, knowing the same to have been brought in contrary to law. The first count of this indictment so charges. As a matter of grammatical construction, the words “fraudulently or knowingly,” which are part of the definition of the crime as stated in the first clause of this law, are not connected with the crime defined in the second clause. The textual criticisms made in the argument are extremely tenuous and unsound. The Court, under the indictment, would be required to charge not only that the exact knowledge specified in the statute must be found, but also to charge that a definite criminal intent…