The administration has moved on from using drugs as the premise for what is happening in our hemisphere. It is not about drugs, certainly not fentanyl, or, perhaps not even about oil, nor Venezuela. It would be a mistake to allow them to move on. Keep their brutish template always in mind.
In the Southern District of Alabama, there have been 27 cases involving 93 defendants prosecuted under the MDLEA. Of those, I have represented 13 defendants. Mobile is one of the 6 or 7 port city districts that prosecutes these cases with DC/DOJ having the overall responsibility for their oversight.
There are two different types of MDLEA cases; the random sea patrol case and those that develop from intelligence. There might very well have been intelligence involved in some of the bombings of the boats. For legitimate reasons we are not privy to them. That serves as no defense to what amounts to murder on the high seas.
While Rand Paul might sensibly argue that these boats could not reach the United States, that proverbial ship has sailed. The MDLEA is premised on something called extra-jurisdictionality. We have argued these cases on all manner of issues involving the law of piracy, law of the sea, international law, maritime, etc. We have failed.
Only two of my cases had a trajectory linked to the United States (DR to PR). Most of these cases are from the Eastern Pacific area, not the Venezuela/Tobago/Trinidad area. These are small boats in areas where they are a major form of commercial transport. None of my cases involved fentanyl - nor is there any connection with that drug to Venezuela. The largest crew was 6. (The boat that they blew up with 11 members does not fit any profile.)
Of the two that are from that area one was initiated by the Dutch police who were turned over to the Coast Guard. Of the crews that I've been involved with, two of the defendants are Venezuelan, but the crews are mostly Colombian, Mexican, Dominican, and Ecuadorian.
But the bottom line is that - whether they contain drugs or not - there's really no basis for extending the dubious rationale of the MDLEA to the point that you're blowing up boats without due process and sentencing people to an instantaneous capital punishment, especially since the punishments actually meted out in my cases ranged from 48 to 168 months. (One case was nolle prossed as the defendant, a relative of one of the crew, was just catching a ride to a cancer treatment in Puerto Rico.)
As with sentencing in federal court, they are based on drug amounts and the criminal history of the defendant. Certain amounts carry mandatory minimums, usually 10 years. (Paradoxically, thanks to Trump’s First Step Act, along with something called the “safety valve” some latitude from the draconian guidelines sentences has been given to judges. Sometimes they get the break, sometimes they don't.)
These cases involve defendants akin to their land-based counterparts, the mule. As in cases involving mules, the “safety valve exception” recognizes the injustice of holding them to the same standard as the bosses who, safe at home, have lost little save their cargo. These humans are flotsam, left to pay for the crime.
They are recruited from the most humble and desperate slices of poverty-stricken countries and who in most cases have never been involved in criminality. Almost all of my clients were first-time offenders, fishermen who have been either shanghaied or who intentionally have been drawn in by the large amount of money that has been offered to them. Criminal sentences are based on a special kind of extortion - cooperate we'll cut your losses. These people are not in a position to cooperate.
The sort of melodramas that are generally far removed from our shores have become somewhat of a constant by virtue of the MDLEA; unfortunates fished out of the sea, caught in the web of those who would take advantage of their situation and those who would protect this country from the scourge of drugs. Many of them fishermen making a barely sustaining existence, they would come to accept the prospect of a huge reward for navigating a maritime vessel laden with drugs only to find themselves in the nightmare of a prosecution in a foreign land.
Defendant A
Defendant A is a native of El Salvador and had been living in Guatemala. Defendant worked with his fisherman father from the age of seven. His father was killed by unknown persons who stole his boat engine. "I couldn't study anymore because it was then my turn to step up, to work, to help support my little siblings, and my mother." Defendant A moved to Buenaventura, Colombia and fished there to continue supporting his mother and brothers.
In 2007, his family was displaced by paramilitaries in his neighborhood. Forced to pay a portion of his
earnings as a fisherman, he moved hoping to avoid the conflict. Sometime thereafter, he was employed as a deckhand on a coastal trader until the COVID pandemic. He was laid off. "life was hard." He remarked and then added, "It is difficult to see your children go hungry."
The crime with which he is charged originated in Colombia. His involvement was primarily the result of circumstance. While in Colombia to purchase fish, he was the victim of an extortion attempt by Colombian police. When he rebuffed their demands for money, they obliterated his passport. Complaints to the Colombian immigration authorities led nowhere. Set loose without a manner in which to return to his country, his meanderings ultimately resulted in his being held against his wishes in an area controlled by drug traffickers. While most of the individuals ensnared in these ventures are offered money, his inducement was a return voyage to his homeland.
His debrief by federal agents from the United States resulted in another debrief by agents from both US DEA and their Colombian counterparts who traveled here for that express purpose. As self-serving as this sounds, it is apparently another technique used by malevolent actors to obtain the cooperation of mules. During a HSI debrief, in a different MDLEA case, a defendant gave a similar recounting; induced to travel to Colombia to transport fuel, he was held for 5 months in a compound, giving a complete accounting of the areas where he was held as well as the names of the individuals that held him.
Defendant B
The defendant is a 48-year-old, Black, Hispanic Colombian male. He suffered a heart attack in October 2021, and was hospitalized for three days at an unknown facility in Columbia. He continues to suffer residual issues from his heart attack. He was reared by both of his parents in the same household until his mother’s death when he was 15 years old. While his mother was sick with cancer his father fell from a tree and became disabled, and it became his responsibility to provide full-time care for his mother until her death.
Minimally educated, he has a vocationally-limiting medical history (heart attack) and a work history limited to fishing. He has been working since the age of eight, most recently sporadically earning between 15,000 and 30,000 Columbian pesos “weekly.” The USD to Colombian peso exchange rate is 1 USD to 4,732.1100 pesos, yielding a $3 to 6 per week “salary”.
Like him, his co-defendant gave what’s called a debrief. He told the agents that he had been recruited by a man who once owned a business selling and buying fish and ice to fishermen in the area. He had not seen this individual for approximately ten years. The co-defendant had been working odd jobs for a little over two years after he was laid off from his job as a mariner on a coastal trader, a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Desperate to provide financial support to his family, he made the fateful decision to transport drugs.
The amount promised was significant, and given his circumstances, lifesaving. He was paid an advance of 15,000 to make the trip and promised the other half if the trip succeeded. This was his first and only involvement with such a scheme. He was unaware of the amount or type of drugs he would have to transport, the value of the contraband he was engaged to transport.
Defendant C
A native of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, The defendant’s father, 89, and mother, 76, were supported financially by the defendant prior to his arrest. The defendant reported having five brothers and six sisters, all of whom live in Mexico.
The defendant reported completing the 6th grade in Mexico prior to withdrawing, working since age 8 to help provide for his family financially. He earns
earning $300 weekly while working as a fisherman in Mexico.
Defendant D
Colombian, 55yo, married, 3 children:
His father taught him how to fish, how to work, and how to provide for his family, because he was unable to go to school for financial reasons. The defendant stated that he cannot read or write. The defendant stated that he maintains a close relationship with his family, and that they assist in caring for each other. He has worked as a fisherman for his entire adult life.
He earns roughly $56 U.S. dollars per month. The defendant reports no other periods of employment within the past ten years.
Defendant E
Attended school in Colombia through the 5th grade. His family lived in a rural area and that he stopped attending school to begin working and assist his family.
Employed between 2016 and 2020 driving trucks for a company in Colombia, he fled to Venezuela. He moved to the indigenous community where he met his girlfriend and began working as a farmer, raising hens, and transporting people with an old truck belonging to the indigenous community.
He earned between $300 and $400 per month.
Defendant F
Born in Manabi, Puerto Lopez, Ecuador. Family resides in Ecuador. The defendant’s father, age 60, is an ice cream merchant. The defendant’s mother, age 62, is disabled. From 2007 to 2021, the defendant was self-employed as a fisherman. He had no other periods of employment within the past ten years.
Was to be paid $10,000 for transporting the drugs from Ecuador to somewhere off the coast of Mexico and he was given $1,000 initially and was to be given the remainder after delivery. He and the other two people on the boat received a phone that received text messages of GPS coordinates to a boat with the drugs floating off the coast of the Port of Manta near the City of San Juan Quenzio. The captain was instructed to turn on a GPS beacon when they got close to the re-fuel coordinates and they were given a sheet with a code name to use when talking on a handheld radio. They were given a phone that had GPS coordinates with each refueling stop and the people in the refueling boats were from Ecuador and had an Ecuadorian flag flying from their boat.
Defendant G
Born in Buenaventura, Colombia. Worked from a young age to help support his family and going through the garbage to find food. The defendant he legally adopted his granddaughter, 8, who currently lives in Buenaventura. The child was born with an enlarged heart and is in need of heart surgery. The money he earned from the instant offense was meant to help pay for the surgery.
