Two congressmen introduced legislation Tuesday that would make it a crime to conspire in the United States about foreign drug trades, regardless of where the drugs would be headed.
The legislation is intended to override a 2007 ruling in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that case, a jury convicted two people of conspiring in Miami to transport cocaine from Caracas, Venezuela, to Paris, France, according to the court’s ruling. But a three-judge panel vacated the convictions, ruling that federal prosecutors don’t have clear legal authority regarding drug trades that do not involve U.S. territory.
