A friend of mine familiar with the changes proposed for the original draft of the SRCA (changes that will be rolled out today) tells me that, not only does the new version fail to address the Wendell Callahan problem (now known as the "Wullie Horton" problem), it creates an even bigger one, called the "Scarface" problem.
Wonderful! No wonder this patchwork disaster is sliding into the ooze.
My friend notes:
International maritime drug smugglers are now evidently also a species of "low-level, non-violent drug offender;" Query: if you are smuggling gigantic amounts of drugs in a boat, in what sense are you "low-level"? - a fact that has thus far gone totally unnoticed (or willfully ignored) by everyone talking about the "new and improved bill."
A more detailed analysis follows the break.
Newly added language would further expand the existing safety valve to add, for the first time, those convicted under 46 U.S.C. §§ 70503 and 70506 ("Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act") and 21 U.S.C. §§ 960 and 963 ("Controlled Substances Import Export Act"). The MDLEA prohibits the manufacture, distribution or possession of controlled substances on board maritime vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction, or by any citizen or resident alien of the U.S. on any vessel, regardless of whether it is subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
Drug smugglers using vessels in international waters are routinely very serious traffickers moving substantial amounts of drugs. According to a 2014 study, in 2012, 80% of all illegal drugs smuggled into the U.S. arrived via maritime routes. Byron Ramirez and Robert J. Bunker, Eds., Narco-Submarines: Specially Fabricated Vessels Used for Drug Smuggling Purposes, Foreign Military Studies Office - Interagency Research Collaboration, U.S. Army (May 2014). In FY2015, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations (AMO) crews were involved in 198 such interdiction events, recovering an average of 1,045 pounds of cocaine per seizure (213,000 pounds total). According to CBP, these transshipment routes are used by "transnational criminal organizations . . . for the movement of narcotics, precursor chemicals, bulk cash and weapons."
Such activity continues unabated. On March 8, 2016, AMO intercepted a vessel carrying two Panamanian drug smugglers and approximately 1,200 pounds of cocaine - value at approximately $16 million - in international waters in the Caribbean Sea. Press Release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Joint Interagency Task Force South CBP P-3 Aircrew Detects Vessel Packed with 1,200 Pounds of Cocaine (Mar. 14, 2016), available at http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-03-14-000000/joint-interagency-task-force-south-cbp-p-3-aircrew. On March 24, 2016, AMO arrested four people transporting more than 12,800 pounds of cocaine with an estimated value of more than $1.9 million in a "self-propelled semi-submersible vessel." Press Release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP P-3 Detects Semisubmersible (Mar. 24, 2016), available at http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-03-24-000000/cbp-p-3-detects-semisubmersible.
If this is an "improvement" SRCA sponsors think will attract more Republican support, then I am Wendell Callahan going on a date with my ex-girlfriend.
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