Crew Wanted: Be Careful Out There

[GordMay]

In accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention 1982, as generally parallelled in customary international law, a warship (or other state vessel such as a marine police vessel) can board a vessel outside the territorial seas of any state if it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the vessel is engaged in a very limited number of activities (such as piracy, or being a stateless vessel – Article 110).
However, trafficking in drugs is not one of those grounds.
The Law of the Sea Convention 1982 specifically mandates that ‘all States shall co-operate in the suppression of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances engaged in by ships on the high seas contrary to international conventions’ (Article 108).
But this permission does not allow for boarding vessels flying the flag of another state, even on suspicion of drug trafficking, without the consent of that flag state.

[Lighthousegal]

Life sentence for moving a cocaine plant. Not far.