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The criminal complaint, signed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Todd Clements, says Stirling was overheard telling a nurse at the first hospital that he had taken a “large amount” of fentanyl that was “pure.”

“Stirling also told the nurse that he did it because he realized the coast guard was about to board him because he was smuggling,” the complaint says. “He also stated that he wasn’t trying to kill himself by taking the fentanyl, but that the amount he took was from a ‘kilo.’”

At the second hospital, Stirling was telling a nurse that he had been “busted.”

“When the nurse asked what he had been doing, Stirling stated that he was a drug smuggler. Stirling stated that he did not want to go to jail for the rest of his life and that he had a ton of meth and 10 loads of fentanyl that he was taking to Canada.”

Stirling is facing one count of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The sailboat he was aboard, the Mandalay, is registered in Seattle. U.S. officials said it was spotted during a routine coast guard patrol, travelling north 225 nautical miles from Newport, Oregon.

Stirling has already made his first court appearance in Portland and was ordered remanded in custody until his trial.

He was only released from a U.S. prison on April 27, 2018 after serving most of a seven and a half year sentence handed to him by a Florida judge in 2013.

Two years before, he was arrested off the coast of Colombia on another vessel with 381 kilograms of cocaine bound for Australia.