While the President signed a 1982 Convention on the Law of the Seas treaty authorizing the U.S. to exercise jurisdiction out twenty-four miles rather than twelve, the President in 1999 signed an executive proclamation approving that distance as a \u201ccontiguous zone.\u201d The appearance of defendant\u2019s boat off Puerto Rico in rough seas with the crew claiming they were testing a boat that had been repaired just didn\u2019t wash with the Coast Guard since they ignored radio contact, so they boarded it. It was a legal boarding and search, and defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging it. Delgado-Negr\u00f3n v. United States, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30925 (D. P.R. March 24, 2011).*<\/p>\n
Defendants were indicted for staging a traffic stop to steal drugs. The fact they had probable cause for their stop of the victims is no defense, and \u201cquite simply, nonsense.\u201d United States v. Torres-Sobrado, 733 F. Supp. 2d 325 (D. P.R. 2010)*:<\/p>\n
The arguments made by the defendants, first, that no property was unlawfully seized because the property in question consisted only of illegal substances and, second, that the defendants had probable cause to conduct the fateful traffic stop and therefore, presumably, that the resulting search and seizure were lawfully conducted is, quite simply, nonsense. Even if the property taken from the victim is property that is not constitutionally protected, and even if the movants were accompanied during the traffic stop by a \u201creal\u201d member of the Puerto Rico Police Department acting on a tip from a reliable source, the defendants\u2019 stop, detention, and search of Andrades were illegal according to the allegations in Count Six. Defendants are charged with staging a false traffic stop, motivated not by any attempt on the part of real law enforcement officers to enforce real laws, but motivated by a goal to procure drugs for resale and profit. For the defendants to argue that they had probable cause for the actions they are charged with, despite the fact that they are charged with staging that stop, despite the fact that neither is a real law enforcement official, despite the fact that they allegedly dressed up as law enforcement officials, is stunningly irrational and baseless. The Court rejects these arguments outright.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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