Coneo-Guerrero v. U.S.
| Citation | 142 F.Supp.2d 170 |
| Decision Date | 30 March 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. 00-1491(JAF).,No. CIV. 00-1492(JAF).,No. CR. 95-218.,No. CIV. 00-1565(JAF).,CIV. 00-1491(JAF).,CIV. 00-1492(JAF).,CIV. 00-1565(JAF).,CR. 95-218. |
| Parties | Julio CONEO-GUERRERO, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent. Jesus A. Villa-Contreras, Petitioner, v. United States of America, Respondent. Juan Jose Arango-Herrera, Petitioner, v. United States of America, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Zygmunt G. Slominski, Ledgewood, NJ, Julio Coneo-Guerrero, pro se, Elkton, OH, for Julio Coneo-Guerrero, plaintiffs.
Miguel A. Fernandez-Torres, U.S. Attorney's Office District of P.R., Civil Division, Hato Rey, PR, for U.S., defendants.
Petitioners, Julio Coneo-Guerrero, Juan José Arango-Herrera, and Jesús Villa-Contreras, file three separate petitions seeking habeas relief from their federal court convictions on narcotics-related charges. Since Petitioners were convicted at a joint trial based on the same underlying facts, we consolidate these petitions for disposition.
We draw the following factual summary from the First Circuit opinion affirming our April 11, 1996 judgments. See United States v. Coneo-Guerrero, 148 F.3d 44 (1st Cir.1998).
During the nighttime hours of June 27-28, 1995, United States Customs officers conducting aerial surveillance detected a boat with its lights extinguished traveling toward Puerto Rico. At the time the ship was detected, the U.S. Customs plane was flying about fifteen miles south of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Customs pilots, along with agents from other agencies, tracked the boat until it arrived at Cayo Cabuzazos, an area approximately three miles from the Puerto Rican coast. Using night vision goggles, the agents observed the crew of the boat throwing items overboard into the sea. To gain better visibility of the suspicious activity, federal agents called in a helicopter which directed a bright "night sun" searchlight at the vessel. The boat immediately fled south. After a long chase, federal agents and a local marine police unit apprehended the boat approximately thirteen or fourteen miles away from the coast of Puerto Rico.
Agents boarded the boat and arrested Petitioners, along with the captain of the vessel, Edgardo Dominguez-Moreno, who died after trial, but prior to sentencing. On the boat, agents discovered that the dashboard lights had been covered with dark tape to reduce their glow at night. Agents also discovered a handwritten note plotting the boat's route from Colombia, South America, to Puerto Rico. Agents found a second note, written in Spanish, describing an allocation: "399 for the office"; "85 for Nando"; "85 for Lindo"; and "5 for the crew." Law enforcement agents also recovered a pair of burlap sacks on the boat.
In Cayo Cabuzazos, where agents had observed Petitioners dumping objects from their boat, agents found numerous burlap sacks floating in the water, as well as 543 kilograms of cocaine packaged in hundreds of bundles. The sacks discovered aboard Petitioners' boat matched those floating in Cayo Cabuzazos. The sacks found in both locations contained traces of cocaine.
A week after Petitioners were arrested, a grand jury indicted them for violating 18 U.S.C. § 2 (1994),1 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (1994),2 and 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) (1994).3 After a four-day trial, a jury returned guilty verdicts against Petitioners, and this court sentenced each Petitioner to concurrent sentences of 235 months of imprisonment.
On July 14, 1998, the First Circuit affirmed our judgment. The United States Supreme Court denied Petitioners' application for writ of certiorari on April 26, 1999.
Petitioners Villa-Contreras and Coneo-Guerrero filed their section 2255 petitions on April 24, 2000, and Petitioner Arango-Herrera filed his section 2255 petition on April 26, 2000.
Under section 2255, a petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing "[u]nless the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief." 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Therefore, a motion for section 2255 relief may only be denied without a hearing if "the petitioner's allegations, accepted as true, would not entitle [him] to relief," Dziurgot v. Luther, 897 F.2d 1222, 1225 (1st Cir.1990) (per curiam), or if the allegations are not believable as true because "they are contradicted by the record, inherently incredible, or conclusions rather than statements of fact." United States v. Michaud, 925 F.2d 37, 39 (1st Cir.1991) (quoting Dziurgot, 897 F.2d at 1225).
Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero alleges that he is entitled to habeas relief on the following grounds: (1) this court did not have jurisdiction to impose his judgment and sentence; (2) his conviction was obtained using evidence acquired during an unlawful search and seizure; (3) his Fifth Amendment rights were violated; (4) the government failed to disclose favorable evidence; and (5) Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero received ineffective assistance of counsel. We address each argument in turn.
Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero contends that he is entitled to habeas relief because this court did not have jurisdiction to impose the judgment and sentence against him. Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero avers that his arrest violated international law because he was arrested by Puerto Rico police outside the customs waters of the United States. Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero claims that because the vessel used in the cocaine smuggling was of Colombian origin and registry, and since Petitioners were all Colombian nationals, the seizure of the vessel and arrest of Petitioners in international waters was unlawful. Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero further alleges that his arrest violated the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, 46 U.S.C.App. § 1903 (1970 & Supp. I.2000).4
In this case, even though Petitioners were arrested in international waters, it is apparent that they intended to distribute the cocaine within the United States, since the drugs were dumped overboard only three miles from the shores of Puerto Rico. After a long chase, agents apprehended Petitioners in international waters only after Petitioners fled U.S. waters upon being approached by law enforcement agents. We find that this court has jurisdiction over Petitioners' offenses, because a country has jurisdiction over criminal conduct which took place within its borders. See 4 WAYNE R. LAFAVE ET AL., CRIMINAL PROCEDURE §§ 16.4(b), 16.4(c) (2d ed.1999).
Moreover, Congress may enact penal statutes having effect outside the territorial boundaries of the United States. See United States v. Baker, 609 F.2d 134, 136 (5th Cir.1980). Accordingly, a "`sovereign may exercise jurisdiction over acts done outside its geographical jurisdiction which are intended to produce detrimental effects within it.'" United States v. Hayes, 653 F.2d 8, 11 (1st Cir.1981) (citing United States v. Arra, 630 F.2d 836, 840 (1st Cir.1980)) (upholding narcotics-related convictions of defendants arrested on the high seas).
The statutes Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero was convicted of violating, 18 U.S.C. § 2, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and 21 U.S.C. § 952(a), do not mention whether Congress intended to include offenses committed on the high seas. A statute that is silent on the issue of extraterritorial application may be given extraterritorial effect if Congress intended the statute to apply outside the United States. Baker, 609 F.2d at 136.
With regard to 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), the First Circuit has held that "so long as it is clear that the intended distribution would occur within the territorial United States ... jurisdiction may be maintained (under 841(a)(1)) where defendants are apprehended outside the territorial waters." Hayes, 653 F.2d at 15-16 (internal citation omitted).
Statutes intended to curb trafficking in controlled substances would be greatly limited in efficacy if the government was unable to prosecute individuals arrested outside U.S. territorial boundaries. See United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94, 98, 43 S.Ct. 39, 67 L.Ed. 149 (1922) (); Baker, 609 F.2d at 137 ().
As we will discuss infra, Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero's Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, and Brady theories for relief, which are intertwined with his claim that this court lacked jurisdiction, must also fail.
Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero claims that his conviction was obtained by use of evidence gained pursuant to an illegal search and seizure. Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero argues that since the arrest of Petitioners and seizure of the ship took place in international waters, the evidence gained from the boarding of the boat must be suppressed as fruits of the poisonous tree. Petitioner Coneo-Guerrero contends that the following evidence should have been suppressed at trial due to alleged infringements on his Fourth Amendment rights: a plastic bag, debris, fiber and twine from the boat, photographs of the seized vessel and its equipment, letters, notes, invoices, inventories, money, and nautical charts.
In Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976), the Supreme Court limited the availability of collateral review of state court judgments regarding Fourth Amendment violations. See Tart v. Commonwealth of Mass., 949 F.2d 490, 497 n. 6 (1st Cir.1991) (citations omitted). Specifically, the Court held that when a State provides an opportunity for full and fair litigation of a Fourth Amendment claim, the Constitution does not require that a federal court grant a state prisoner habeas corpus relief on the ground that the...
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