When the FBI Comes Calling…®
PIRACY AT SEA (continued)
Other Piracy Statutes (continued)
18 USCS § 1658 (2005)
Plunder of distressed vessel
- (a) Whoever plunders, steals, or destroys any money, goods, merchandise, or other effects from or belonging to any vessel in distress, or wrecked, lost, stranded, or cast away, upon the sea, or upon any reef, shoal, bank, or rocks of the sea, or in any other place within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
- (b) Whoever willfully obstructs the escape of any person endeavoring to save his life from such vessel, or the wreck thereof; or
- Whoever holds out or shows any false light, or extinguishes any true light, with intent to bring any vessel sailing upon the sea into danger or distress or shipwreck—
Shall be imprisoned not less than ten years and may be imprisoned for life.
18 USCS § 1659 (2005)
Attack to plunder vessel
Whoever, upon the high seas or other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, by surprise or open force, maliciously attacks or sets upon any vessel belonging to another, with an intent unlawfully to plunder the same, or to despoil any owner thereof of any moneys, goods, or merchandise laden on board thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
18 USCS § 1660 (2005)
Receipt of pirate property
Whoever, without lawful authority, receives or takes into custody any vessel, goods, or other property, feloniously taken by any robber or pirate against the laws of the United States, knowing the same to have been feloniously taken, shall be imprisoned not more than ten years.
18 USCS § 1661 (2005)
Robbery ashore
Whoever, being engaged in any piratical cruise or enterprise, or being of the crew of any piratical vessel, lands from such vessel and commits robbery on shore, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for life.