Court Opinion

ID: 9496138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:18:51.608155+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:23.266417
License: Public Domain

SCHROEDER, Chief Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the result. All three defendants were convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 952(a), importation of controlled substances. The crime was transporting illicit drugs from California to Guam. This was transportation from the continental United States to a territory of the United States that has its own customs authority.
The language of the statute provides:
*638It shall be unlawful to import into the customs territory of the United States from any place outside thereof (but within the United States), or to import into the United States from any place outside thereof, any controlled substance ... or any narcotic drug....
21 U.S.C. § 952(a).
The first clause states that it is illegal to take drugs from non-customs territory of the United States to customs territory of the United States. The defendants did not do this.
The second clause bars the taking of drugs from foreign territory into the United States. The defendants did not do this either. Therefore, the statute was not violated.
The concerns reflected in both the dissent and the majority opinion about crossing international waters are not relevant to the interpretation of the plain language of the statute as I read it. Nevertheless, I do concur wholeheartedly in the result reached by the majority.