United States v. Olaf Peter Juda Raymond Edward Missell Anthony Burg Frans Gustaaf Van Der Hoeven and Christopher Dean Paris

These appeals address the authority of the United States to apprehend individuals on the high seas and the jurisdiction to prosecute them for violations of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA), 46 U.S.C.App. §§ 1901-04. Defendants entered conditional guilty pleas to charges of possession of drugs with intent to distribute, 46 U.S.C. § 1903 (a), and arson, 18 U.S.C. § 81 . All reserved the right to seek appellate review of the district court’s refusal to dismiss the prosecutions for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and the district court’s rejection of their Fourth Amendment claims.

We conclude that there is no statutory or constitutional bar to exercising jurisdiction over these five defendants. We reject defendants’ claims that the investigation of their activities and the subsequent stop and seizure of their vessel violated the Fourth Amendment. Finally, we reject the claim of one defendant that he was improperly sentenced.

FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

United States Customs learned in 1989 that defendant Olaf Juda was the captain of a ship that had off-loaded marijuana on the Oregon coast in 1987. Customs began investigating Juda’s current activities and attempted…