Fed.Appx. 873 (11th Cir.2006), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the MDLEA as a proper exercise of congressional power under the "High Seas Clause" in a case involving the seizure of cocaine aboard a vessel intercepted and boarded in international waters. In so ruling, the court affirmed earlier decisions rejecting arguments that the MDLEA is unconstitutional because the criminal conduct at issue lacked a nexus to the United States. See United States v. Rendon, supra; United States v. Mena, 863 F.2d 1522, 1527 (11th Cir.1989) (rejecting facial challenge to the MDLEA based on a lack of a "meaningful relationship" to the United States); United States v. Stuart-Caballero, 686 F.2d 890, 891 (11th Cir.1982) (per curiam) (rejecting facial challenge to predecessor statute of the MDLEAfor lack of a nexus requirement). These and other cases have clearly established the constitutionality of the MDLEA in cases involving drugs found on vessels intercepted in international waters.
The instant case, however, presents a different but related issue, that is, the constitutionality of the MDLEA when charged in a case involving a vessel first found in the territorial waters of a foreign state. More specifically, the Court must decide whether such a prosecution is constitutionally permitted under the "offenses against the law of nations-clause as urged by the government here. While not specifically addressed in Garcia, supra, the Eleventh Circuit noted that the district court decision below found that drug trafficking "constituted an offense against the law of nations" and thus empowered Congress to criminalize it pursuant to