11th Circuit Affirms MDLEA Convictions in Go-Fast Drug Bust

The court rejected the defendants' constitutional challenges to the statute, holding that binding precedent forecloses arguments that the MDLEA is unconstitutional under the Felonies Clause or that the defendants' conduct lacked a sufficient nexus to the United States.

The appeal involves Angelo Martinez, Eric Manuel Suero Terrero, and Justo Matos Pena, who were charged in the Southern District of Florida. The defendants had moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the MDLEA’s definition of a "stateless vessel" conflicted with customary international law and that their arrest in the Dominican Republic’s EEZ violated the High Seas requirement of the Felonies Clause.

The district court denied the motion to dismiss, relying on the protective principle of international law, which permits jurisdiction over conduct outside U.S. territory that threatens national security or governmental functions. The defendants subsequently pled guilty.

The 11th Circuit noted that the go-fast vessel qualified as a "vessel without nationality" under the MDLEA because Martinez claimed Colombian registry, but Colombia did not affirmatively assert the vessel’s nationality. The court emphasized that this classification applies even when the vessel is located in another nation’s EEZ.

The court distinguished the defendants' reliance on United States v. Bellaizac-Hurtado, clarifying that case involved apprehension in territorial waters under the Offences Clause, not the High Seas under the Felonies Clause. The court held that Congress possesses additional constitutional authority to restrict conduct on the high seas, including within foreign EEZs, under the Felonies Clause.

Regarding sentencing, the court addressed Suero Terrero’s argument that recent Sentencing Guidelines amendments should apply retroactively. The court concluded the amendments were substantive rather than clarifying and therefore did not apply retroactively. Even if they did, the court noted they would not have changed his sentence.

The district court sentenced Martinez, the vessel’s master, to 108 months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release. Matos Pena received 144 months of imprisonment and five years of supervised release. Suero Terrero, identified as a deckhand, was sentenced to 96 months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release.

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgments in full, finding no reversible error in the district court’s constitutional rulings or sentencing determinations.