The San Diego Coast Guard responded to a call from the skipper of a small boat who reported that his battery had died and requested assistance. The boat was located in international waters, 25 miles off Point Loma, San Diego. A Coast Guard cutter Sea Otter headed there. However, when rescuers arrived aboard the stricken boat, the affair ended not with charging the battery, but with a search and arrest.
Coast Guard officials detained the two men on board and turned them over to police for processing.
While California state law, to which San Diego belongs, permits the possession of marijuana in commercial quantities, U.S. federal law classifies cannabis as a prohibited substance.