The Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008, , was an act of the United States Congress outlawing operation of or travel in unregistered submersibles and semi-submersibles in international waters with the intent to evade detection.
The act was enacted to combat the use of illicit self-propelled semi-submersible and submersible vessels in international drug trafficking (see narco-submarine).Allyson Bennett, That Sinking Feeling: Stateless Ships, Universal Jurisdiction, and the Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act, Yale Journal of International Law, Volume 37, Issue 2 (2012). Notably, the act provides for extraterritorial jurisdiction. The law extended earlier legislation such as the Marijuana on the High Seas Act (MHSA) and Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA).
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