Author: Houston Stringer

ATLANTA, GA – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed two misdemeanor convictions against Rady Williams, who was cited for unauthorized commercial activity and for interfering with a National Park Service ranger while inside Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park. Williams was convicted following a bench trial before a magistrate judge in the Northern District of Georgia. The court found him guilty of conducting commercial operations without a permit under 36 C.F.R. § 5.3, and of resisting and intentionally interfering with a government employee performing official duties under 36 C.F.R. § 2.32(a)(1). The convictions stemmed from multiple incidents between Williams and park rangers in 2022 and 2023. The consolidated appeals were filed under Eleventh C...

TAMPA, FL – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the conviction of Nedry McLean, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison for conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine aboard a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction. McLean was apprehended on December 30, 2021, after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft spotted a low-profile vessel in international waters approximately 37 nautical miles north of Colón, Panama. U.S. Coast Guard personnel observed the occupants jettisoning packages overboard before stopping and boarding the vessel. Authorities recovered 40 one-kilogram packages of cocaine from the water. McLean was charged in the Middle District of Florida under case number 8:22-cr-00026-SCB-AAS-3 with vio...

MIAMI, FL – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has upheld the convictions of three men caught transporting cocaine on a stateless vessel in the Caribbean, rejecting their constitutional challenges to the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act and arguments over jurisdiction. The defendants, Santo Rosario-Rivera, Francisco Rijo-Rijo (also known as David Ernand), and Placido Rivera-Rodriguez, were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2022 while aboard a vessel located approximately 130 nautical miles off the coast of Aruba. The vessel displayed no indicia of nationality, and none of the men identified a master or made a nationality claim for the vessel, rendering it stateless under 46 U.S.C. § 70502(d)(1)(B). The Coast Guard recovered 18 bales of cocaine during the search...

MIAMI, FL – The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the conviction of Adam Marc Twinley, a British citizen who was found guilty of possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the United States. Twinley was convicted in the Southern District of Florida under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A), case number 2:24-cr-14012-AMC-1. The case was appealed under Eleventh Circuit case number 25-11774. Court records show that Twinley entered the country on a P-1 nonimmigrant visa in 2013 and overstayed. Although his wife’s I-130 petition was approved in 2020, he never filed an I-485 adjustment application. In 2023, while awaiting a removal hearing, Twinley used his friend’s firearms at a shooting range and was later charged. At trial, Twinley argued that he mi...