[2Wycked]

Some enterprising rogues caused a bit of trouble Christmas Eve in southwest Florida:

Quote:

A recent rash of high-end boat thefts had Lee County sheriff’s deputies detectives on high alert, and for Detective Tim Galloway, that meant patrolling the Gulf in the dead of night two days before Christmas.

From his perch along the eastern end of the Sanibel Causeway, Galloway watched as an SUV lowered a small boat, maybe 15 feet, into the water. Suspicious, Galloway followed the vessel, then called for backup just before it entered a canal along the northern end of Fort Myers Beach.

At 2 a.m., a 36-foot, triple-engine powerboat emerged, with none of its lights activated. Law enforcement vessels and an overhead helicopter swooped in, but the captain didn’t plan to surrender easily. Over the next 18 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard and Sheriff’s Office would chase the boat through the Gulf, traveling nearly 350 miles, sometimes at speeds of up to 75 mph, until the three men aboard — two from the Miami area, one from Mexico — finally were apprehended in the waters between Cancún, Mexico, and western Cuba.

On Monday, a Lee County judge all but ensured the trio won’t be allowed to run again, setting bonds totaling about $1.25 million to $1.5 million for the three men at a first appearance hearing. There, Lee County sheriff’s Detective Kevin Watkins lobbied for the hefty bonds, telling the judge that the men were "definitely a flight risk for leaving the area."

All three men requested an assistant public defender, indicating they will not be able to afford to post the large amount of bonds.

Additional details of the high-speed pursuit were also released Monday in arrest reports for David Llanes Vasquez, 33, of Miami; Raul de la Vega-Sauri, 25, of Homestead; and Vidal Ramirez-Farfan, 23, of Mexico.

In the reports, deputies wrote that recent reports from multiple law enforcement agencies about thefts of high-horsepower boats prompted increased patrols along the Gulf.

Once Galloway identified the suspicious small boat and officials closed in on the larger vessel, the suspects refused to cooperate, at one point speeding toward a sheriff’s boat carrying four people. Sheriff’s deputies initially pursued the suspects but retreated when marine conditions became too dangerous, the report said.

A cunning piece of police work ensured the suspects didn’t elude capture. Deputies contacted the boat’s owner — who purchased the vessel for $287,000 in 2014 — and learned a GPS device was onboard. Detectives hopped on the Internet and were able to track the boat’s location, relaying it to a Coast Guard helicopter.

Over the next 18 hours, two fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopter followed the stolen seacraft. Officers watched as several drums of fuel were tossed overboard — Vasquez faces eight charges of reckless pollution — and the boat stopped several times, apparently for refueling. At times, waves reached 6 to 8 feet high.

"The question has been asked, 'Why didn’t we shoot out the engines?' We took the most peaceful and the most efficient manner possible, so that’s why the chase went on for 300 miles," Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashley Johnson said. "We were concerned for the safety and welfare of our crews."

At about 8:30 p.m., a 157-foot Coast Guard cutter reached the stolen boat. It’s unclear how this encounter occurred — an arrest report doesn’t say, and a Johnson said it’s “under investigation” — but it ended with Vasquez, de la Vega-Sauri and Ramirez-Farfan in custody. Investigators determined that Vasquez piloted the boat, with de la Vega-Sauri providing direction.

Ramirez-Farfan and de la Vega-Sauri didn’t speak at length during Monday’s hearing, while Vasquez spoke of being involved in a crash with police until he was cut off by the judge and an assistant public defender.

Ramirez-Farfan and de la Vega-Sauri both face counts of burglary and first-degree grand theft, receiving bonds totaling $1.25 million each. Vasquez faces 19 charges, including grand theft, burglary, fleeing or eluding, and assault with intent to commit a felony. His bonds total nearly $1.5 million.

Here is some more footage of the hijacked boat:

Here is a candid shot of the accused:

[Suits]

This is why we need Trump in the White House. Three guys from Mexico try to call it quits and go back home and the nanny state forces them to return the USA, all on the taxpayer's dime.

I'm starting to suspect that the elites are actually hard to work to increase the number of illegals within our borders.

[Foolsgo1d]

Why would low level cartel members steal these power boats? They're used to smuggle drugs and not for show so it must be a new upstart group who don't have the means to get their drugs into the US like other cartels.

If I owned a powerful boat in these waters I would be very weary, could lead to murder or coercion.

[Suits]

(12-31-2015 09:54 AM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  

If I owned a powerful boat in these waters I would be very weary, could lead to murder or coercion.

El Mech isn't worried.

[el mechanico]

(12-31-2015 02:55 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(12-31-2015 09:54 AM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  

If I owned a powerful boat in these waters I would be very weary, could lead to murder or coercion.

El Mech isn't worried.

Amateurs. And if you own a boat like that who's going to catch you if it took the coast guard that long.

[germanico]

Thats the result of forfeiture laws. Any regular cop would have abandoned the chase the moment they got into international waters.

Or, perhaps, these where high stakes criminals. Farfan and Sauri arent precisely peasant names and the fact that they all use their second last names tells me that they mexicans with an international lifestyle and not just "latinos" in the US, so, no cholo mugshots.

Quote:

Galloway watched as an SUV lowered a small boat, maybe 15 feet, into the water. Suspicious, Galloway followed the vessel, then called for backup just before it entered a canal along the northern end of Fort Myers Beach.

Thats a stakeout right there. This was not a casual arrest, they where being hunted.

Quote:

"The question has been asked, 'Why didn’t we shoot out the engines?' We took the most peaceful and the most efficient manner possible, so that’s why the chase went on for 300 miles,"

"We wouldnt want to damage a $250k ship"

[porscheguy]

(12-31-2015 07:12 PM)germanico Wrote:  

Thats the result of forfeiture laws. Any regular cop would have abandoned the chase the moment they got into international waters.

Or, perhaps, these where high stakes criminals. Farfan and Sauri arent precisely peasant names and the fact that they all use their second last names tells me that they mexicans with an international lifestyle and not just "latinos" in the US, so, no cholo mugshots.

Quote:

Galloway watched as an SUV lowered a small boat, maybe 15 feet, into the water. Suspicious, Galloway followed the vessel, then called for backup just before it entered a canal along the northern end of Fort Myers Beach.

Thats a stakeout right there. This was not a casual arrest, they where being hunted.

Quote:

"The question has been asked, 'Why didn’t we shoot out the engines?' We took the most peaceful and the most efficient manner possible, so that’s why the chase went on for 300 miles,"

"We wouldnt want to damage a $250k ship"

That boat doesn't get seized. It gets returned to the owner. The owner wasn't involved in a crime, and the boat was a victim of crime. It's not 1983 anymore. You can't march into the cigarette dealer with bag full of cash and buy a $250K boat without raising any suspicions. So with that said, the person who bought it, did so legitimately. And as a general rule, the cops know better than to fuck with people who can afford to buy toys like that. People like that have the resources to fight back and smear egg on the faces of those who fuck with them.

Regular cops will happily pursue this kind of stuff. If you're a cop, and you get to work on a boat, that's the kind of stuff that made you sign up for boat duty in the first place.

In the US, your Mexican social position means fuck all to us.

The reason they didn't shoot the engines is because a moving object trying to shoot at another moving object, which entails a third moving object, isn't as easy as Hollywood would have us believe. In addition, it was Christmas and I doubt most of the people involved wanted to kill someone on Christmas, and they sure as shit didn't want to deal with the extra mountain of paperwork when they returned.

[Paracelsus]

[Uncircumcised Coke Can]

Forgive me for reviving this, but I had to ask...

Given these cons were well into international waters --- under what authority were they arrested?

Wasn't the U.S coast guard breaking international law by doing this (in effect claiming jurisdiction in intl waters)?

If there's any lawyers here, it'd be cool to get your input. You know, just in case any of us need to make a break for the open seas in the future haha...

[porscheguy]

The US has blatantly disregarded international law and imposed their own laws on foreign citizens of sovereign nations for decades. Prime examples:
1. Manuel Noriega rots in a federal prison in Florida for money laundering despite the fact that he never once washed a single dollar on US soil.
2. Those Somali pirates who jacked a foreign ship (not a US registry) off the east coast of Africa, were tried for piracy in a US court in NYC and sent to a US prison. Had they stuck to maritime law, they would have killed the fuckers on the spot and dumped them overboard.

[Suits]

(01-12-2016 05:14 PM)porscheguy Wrote:  

1. Manuel Noriega rots in a federal prison in Florida for money laundering despite the fact that he never once washed a single dollar on US soil.

Don't worry, he's rotting in a prison in Panama now.

[Hotwheels]

(01-12-2016 02:34 PM)Uncircumcised Coke Can Wrote:  

Forgive me for reviving this, but I had to ask...

Given these cons were well into international waters --- under what authority were they arrested?

Wasn't the U.S coast guard breaking international law by doing this (in effect claiming jurisdiction in intl waters)?

If there's any lawyers here, it'd be cool to get your input. You know, just in case any of us need to make a break for the open seas in the future haha...

I'd say that following the stolen boat from the dock out to sea supercedes any international waters defense.

It's not like crossing the 15 mile limit is like a get out of jail free card.

[Habano]

Not an expert in maritime law, but I'll throw a couple of angles at you.

1. Hot pursuit. The felony was commissioned in U.S. territorial waters. Local and federal authorities would probably say that they were justified in venturing out into international waters to capture people who are trying to evade arrest. Just as a bank robber who robs a bank in state A shouldn't be able to get away simply because he crosses into state B, similar logic applies here.

2. Treaties. I believe the main treaty governing international waters is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The U.S. played a key role in creating it, but never formally adopted it--it's difficult to get the requisite 67 votes in the Senate to ratify a treaty. Authorities would probably say they are free to disregard international law created by a treaty to which the U.S. is not an actual party. Even if a treaty applied and somehow prohibited what happened, I doubt it would have made a difference. That's just how 'Murica rolls.

3. Ship flag. For this one, you would have to assume that the ship has a U.S. flag (probably the case if the owners are American and registered their ship in one of the states). Most countries assert jurisdiction and police power over ships flying their flag, even if they are on international waters. If you do drug trafficking in international waters near the U.S., you can bet your ass that the feds will fuck with you if they figure that out. Alternatively, you could make an argument that the U.S. flag was flying over the ship because some of the suspects were U.S. citizens (think about a scenario where pirates take over a ship belonging to a country; the country's flag is no longer flying because the pirates have control of it).

Also, I can't believe nobody has put this out here yet . . .