Carta De Consti

Briefing Cases - US v. TINOCO
Facts:
A. Factual Background1. The United States Coast Guard's Interception of the Smuggling Vessel in International Waters
On 18 June 2000, the United States Coast Guard cutter Thetis, a 270-foot ship with approximately 90 to 95 crew members, was on a counter-narcotics patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean.   During the patrol, the Thetis encountered a fiberglassvessel approximately 475 nautical miles west of the Columbian/Ecuadorian border in international waters.   The vessel was approximately 40 feet in length, equipped with three outboard motors, and low in profile to the water.   Thetis crew members later testified that Coast Guard officials refer to such vessels as “go-fast” boats because they can travel at high rates of speed, which makes them afavored vehicle for drug and alien smuggling operations.   When the crew first observed the vessel, it was approximately 300 miles from the nearest point of land.   Randy Bradley, a law enforcement officer aboard the Thetis, later testified that this type of vessel, when used for recreational purposes, usually would stay within 20 nautical miles of the shore due to its limited fuel capacity.   Usingbinoculars, Thetis crew members did not see any markings of identification or a flag on the vessel.   The crew attempted to hail the vessel by way of radio communications in English and Spanish but received no response.
As the Thetis proceeded towards the vessel, the Thetis crew launched a rigid-hull inflatable boat (“RHI”) that contained a four-person boarding team that was ordered to interceptand board the vessel.   Once the RHI was in the water, the unresponsive vessel changed its previous course and began zigzagging to the left and to the right.   While the RHI boarding team was attempting the interception, lookout officers aboard the Thetis observed four individuals on the zigzagging vessel.   The individuals later were identified as Pedro Luis Christopher Tinoco, Neil PomareHoard, Manuel Hernandez, and Tito Daniel Estupinan, the four criminal defendants in this case.1  The Thetis lookout officers saw one defendant driving the vessel, one defendant walking back and forth on the vessel, and two defendants throwing overboard what were later identified as bales of cocaine and 55-gallon fuel drums.   Due to the distance, the Thetis lookout officers were unable to see the facesof the defendants and thus were unable to identify which defendant was performing which activity as the RHI chased the zigzagging vessel.   To locate the items thrown overboard by two of the defendants, the Thetis crew threw into the ocean two smoke floats, pyrotechnic devices that emit smoke for two to three hours when immersed in sea water.
As they pursued the zigzagging vessel, the RHIboarding team, like the Thetis lookout officers, observed the defendants aboard the vessel dumping items into the ocean.   They saw bales, fuel drums, wooden objects, and the vessel's hatch being thrown overboard.   As was true regarding the Thetis lookout officers, however, the RHI boarding team was unable to identify which of the four defendants were involved in dumping the items.   Finally, after a20 to 30 minute chase, the RHI was able to intercept the vessel.   RHI Boarding Officers Tim Burke and Shelby Harrington then boarded the vessel and handcuffed the defendants.
Officer Burke testified at trial that, once on board, he asked the vessel's driver, later identified as Defendant Tinoco, about the vessel's country of origin.   Tinoco answered that the vessel was from Colombia.   In astatement introduced by the defendants at trial,2 Officer Harrington stated that she spoke with the defendant later identified as Hoard, who told her that the vessel's crew was from San Andreas, Colombia, and that the vessel was from Buena Venture, Colombia.   Hoard also told her that the vessel was en route to the Galapagos Islands.   When asked which of the four defendants was the vessel's master,...