This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Maritime agents on patrol picked up on their boat's radar an object moving along a rocky area of an island. This was not 'an area where boats typically travel through' because of the 'rough' conditions and 'the risk that it entails.' Describing his experience with drug smuggling into Puerto Rico, an agent recounted that a boat bringing in drugs from the Caribbean meets in the waters with another boat for the transfer of the drugs to that vessel, which then returns to the Puerto Rican coast. Cocaine is packaged in kilos, wrapped, soaked in oil, and shaped into bales. According to Agent Del Valle, the boat-to-boat, drug-at-sea transfer of a multi-gram shipment typically requires three or four persons to move the drugs from one boat to another because a typical bale 'containing 20 to 25 bricks of cocaine' would weigh in the 'range of 50 to 55 pounds,' and must be 'move[d] . . . quickly' to avoid detection. Agents headed towards their radar contact. They observed a blue and white fishing boat, behaving in an abnormal manner. It 'was going fast,' and 'displacing a large amount of water,' indicating that it was 'carrying a large amount of weight.' This small 'fishing' boat was equipped with 'two 175-horsepower engines,' which were necessary 'to master the amount of weight that they had on the boat.' Agents could make out 'three individuals aboard.' Two individuals were throwing packages into the water” and they continued to do so after being ordered to stop. The three individuals were arrested and the agents tried to retrieve the four bales that had been thrown overboard. The female agent was unable to because of the weight of the bales. One agent injured his leg in the recovery but they got them all back on board. The agents found three fishing poles but no indication that the 'poles had actually been used to conduct any fishing activities that day,' nor was there any 'bait for fishing,' 'fishing boxes,' 'lobster boxes,' 'ice,' 'food,' or 'cell phones' on board. Agents counted 25 total bales of cocaine each bale weighing 50-70 pounds. The street value of the cocaine was $10-12.5 million. Ds were indicted. Ds put on evidence claiming they were not willing participants in a drug trafficking venture but were invitees on a fishing trip who were merely present on a boat when it came upon packages of cocaine in the water. They claimed that D had captained the boat, that the trip began as an uneventful fishing trip where they unloaded lobster traps in the water, and that subsequently the boat came upon the packages in the water, namely bales of cocaine packaged in black plastic floating in the water, and that D loaded those packages on to the boat himself because the other defendants refused to assist. Ds offered as evidence a homemade video depicting a reenactment of twenty-five bales being brought on board a vessel by 'a normal housewife,' a woman of similar age to D. P has questioned the ability of D to bring those bales on board. Ds did the with a woman of similar age, who was able to load the 25 bales. P objected stating that Ds had not 'show[n] a similarity of conditions and circumstances' between the original loading of the cocaine and the purported reenactment. Also, there was 'no indication as to how the bales that were seen floating were actually constructed or packaged'; there was 'dissimilarity in terms of the sea conditions'; the boat appeared to be 'just slightly off a pier instead of in the middle of the ocean'; 'in the video, you can see someone actually captaining the vessel or near the steering console'; and the reenactment was done 'in the daylight hours.' The court held the video inadmissible under Rule 403. Ds were convicted and appealed.

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