Perlaza

Throughout the late Summer of 2000, the USS De Wert, a Navy frigate, and other United States Navy and Coast Guard ships were engaged in maritime surveillance of vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Eastern waters of the Pacific off the coasts of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. On September 11, 2000, the De Wert’s radar alerted its crew and members of a United States Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment team aboard it to suspicious activity by a speedboat and a Colombian fishing vessel, the Gran Tauro, twenty miles away. The De Wert’s helicopter was dispatched to the site of the suspicious activity. Once the speedboat’s crew realized that they had been detected, they jettisoned cargo (later determined to be approximately 2,000 kilograms of cocaine) and 55-gallon gasoline drums before crashing the speedboat into the stern of *1153 the Gran Tauro in an apparent attempt to scuttle the speedboat and destroy evidence of illegal activity. United States Navy and Coast Guard personnel suspected that the Gran Tauro served as a logistical support vessel for the speedboat by providing gasoline for the speedboat’s run from Colombia to Central Mexico.

The five spee'dboat crew members…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

The majority of the panel has reversed the convictions of .the ten Defendants , who opted for trial, holding that the district court erred when it concluded it had jurisdiction over the defendants and, alternatively, because of the Government’s prosecutorial misconduct. I agree with the majority opinion, Section D, that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the defendants’ convictions and that the Gran Tauro defendants’ convictions should be reversed on jurisdictional grounds.

I disagree with the majority, however, with regard to the Go-Fast defendants because the district court correctly decided the issue of statutory jurisdiction as applied to the Go-Fast defendants, and any prosecutorial misconduct resulted in harmless error. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

Proceedings Below

Before trial, Defendants sought to dismiss the indictment on the basis that the distxict court lacked jurisdiction. The district court denied this motion, after an evidentiary hearing, finding that it had jurisdiction over both the Go-Fast and Gran Tauro defendants, in part because the Go-Fast was a stateless vessel.

On October 18, 2001 Defendants Aborno…

Volume 1 of

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 02-50084 v.  D.C. No.

LEONAR NELLINO SEGURA PERLAZA, CR-00-03209-TJW

Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 02-50089 v.  D.C. No.

GUSTAVO SALAZAR PALACIOS, CR-00-03209-TJW

Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 02-50093 v.  D.C. No.

HUGO MARQUEZ, CR-00-03209-W-

Defendant-Appellant. 

2559 2560 UNITED STATES v. PERLAZA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 02-50102 JOSE WALTER ROMAN SOLIS-  D.C. No. BARNAZA, aka Jose Walter Rodman CR-00-03209-TJW Solis Barnaza, Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 02-50108 v.  D.C. No.

MANUEL PLACIDO RENGIFO-AUDIVER, …