Crimes On the High Seas?

[UDS]

Oh, there are certainly party cruises. And not just for gays. But this goes to relaxed enforcement of laws, not to having no laws. If somebody dies from too many party drugs, good luck arguing that the police have no jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute.

[Princhester]

@bump

And let’s just say the ship’s registered out of Liberia, because it’s a major flag of convenience, and likely to have sub-standard regulation.

Actually the Liberian registry is run very efficiently out of New York. It is basically a “cheat” US register with virtually nothing to do with Liberia.

[Habeed]

@bump

I think what the OP’s getting at is why someone can’t just buy an old cruise ship, register it somewhere like Liberia or Panama, name it the “Bang Barge” , fill up half the cabins with pre-paid hookers, and sell “all-inclusive” cruises around the Caribbean or Mediterranean, or wherever?

Don’t forget the high grade drugs. It would be the “bang barge snow boat” from all the cocaine. You wouldn’t want to have drugs on the boat if it enters a U.S. port, so you’d have the cocaine delivered directly from Columbia at sea and make sure it was all consumed and cleaned up before returning to port.

[Habeed]

@Urbanredneck

Well that’s the thing. It was a “gay” adults-only cruise meaning some large homosexual group had rented out the whole boat so I’d guess as part of the negotiations, the crew agreed to ignore nearly everything.

Legally, this is fine, right? The crew aren’t cops, drug abuse isn’t a crime that has mandatory reporting statutes, and so they are good to go?

[bump]

@Habeed

Don’t forget the high grade drugs. It would be the “bang barge snow boat” from all the cocaine. You wouldn’t want to have drugs on the boat if it enters a U.S. port, so you’d have the cocaine delivered directly from Columbia at sea and make sure it was all consumed and cleaned up before returning to port.

Hell, I’ll go one further, and say that the boat never goes into port in the US, only in places where there’s lax enforcement of that kind of thing. Otherwise it has a small set of tenders that schlep people to and from the boat, which stays comfortably in international waters.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

An earlier thread that might be of interest: Can a wealthy criminal live with impunity on the high seas? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@SpeedwayRyan

Not exactly major crimes here, but I distinctly remember nobody caring that I gambled (slot machines, video poker, etc.) in the casino on a cruise ship once we were in “international waters” when I was about 11 or 12.

Gambling restrictions (at least in person ones) are a matter of state rather than federal law.

[UDS]

@Habeed

Legally, this is fine, right? The crew aren’t cops, drug abuse isn’t a crime that has mandatory reporting statutes, and so they are good to go?

It’s fine for the individual crew members, unless they co-operate with what is going on to the point of exposing themselves to a charge of aiding and abetting, or similar. The people supplying the drugs, etc, are committing the same crimes on the ship as they would be if they supplied them on dry land. Depending on the precise nature of the crimes being committed, the shipowners (and possibly the master) are at risk of prosecution on whatever charges are normally brought against people who run crack houses, brothels, etc. Much would depend on the exact facts.

[bump]

What would be the jurisdiction though? That’s basically what I’m asking. If say I bought my Mongolian registered ship (yes, it’s a real flag of convenience) ship in say… Syria, and got it fixed up in Europe, crewed it and hired my “entertainers” in Amsterdam, and then sailed it to a spot 25 miles off the coast of say… Mobile, where I set up, and get my passengers onto the ship by a quick helicopter ride.

So the Bang Barge sets sail and cruises down to the Caribbean, but we use our helicopter to actually get people on and off the ship, and never come closer than 25 miles to land. We sail back to Mobile, put all passengers on land via helicopter, and sail back to Amsterdam, where we set loose our entertainers and proceed to refuel, reprovision and hire a new set of entertainers.

So at no point would we enter US territorial waters or even the contiguous zone, and the only contact with the US would be via the helicopters that fly to and from the ship.

So how would I be breaking US (or state) law? The passengers wouldn’t be breaking any laws that they wouldn’t be breaking going to a Nevada brothel, and the crew wouldn’t be breaking any US laws that I’m aware of.