Last week, the Second Circuit decided United States v. Epskamp, No. 15-2028. The Court affirmed the district court’s decisions regarding the extraterritoriality of 21 U.S.C. 959. The appeal followed a trial in front of Judge Sullivan and concerned the use of an aircraft registered in the United States as part of a scheme to fly drugs from the Dominican Republic to Amsterdam.
Section 959(b) makes it unlawful for any person on board an aircraft registered in the United States to (1) manufacture or distribute a controlled substance or (2) possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute. [NB: the statute has since been amended, so that the old section (b) is now section (c) and the old section (c) is now section (d). Because the amendments did not result in substantive changes, the Court referred to the old version of the statute.] Section 959(c), entitled “Acts committed outside territorial …