>>7434 (lb)
18 U.S. Code § 1652. Citizens as pirates
Whoever, being a citizen of the United States, commits any murder or robbery, or any act of hostility against the United States, or against any citizen thereof, on the high seas, under color of any commission from any foreign prince, or state, or on pretense of authority from any person, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for life.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 774.)
This would include trafficking slaves on the high seas or international airspace.
JE was guarding a treasure, a stash of blackmail, paid for by the souls of thousands of innocent babies and children, in a vault, on an island in the Carribean Sea. That vault contained the most valuable treasure on the planet. It is what held everything together. The keystone, perhaps. Regardless, he was a Pirate and so were all his buddies.