United States v. Abdulle, No. 06-3647-cr (2d Cir. April 22, 2009) (Newman, Sotomayor, Katzmann, CJJ) Defendant Mohamed was convicted of distributing cathinone, the active ingredient in khat leaves, and challenged the sufficiency of the evidence against him. The circuit affirmed. The difficulty, as always in khat cases, is the complex regulatory scheme for this substance. … Read more

United States v. Hassan, No. 05-6949-cr (2d Cir. September 19, 2008) (Calabresi, Pooler, Sotomayor, CJJ) Defendant Hassan was convicted of three conspiracy counts – (1) importation of a controlled substance (2) distribution of a controlled substance, and (3) money laundering – along with forty-one substantive money laundering counts, in connection with his importation of khat … Read more