8 USC §1182(a)(2)(C)

(C) Controlled substance traffickers

Any alien who the consular officer or the Attorney General knows or has reason to believe-

(i) is or has been an illicit trafficker in any controlled substance or in any listed chemical (as defined in section 802 of title 21), or is or has been a knowing aider, abettor, assister, conspirator, or colluder with others in the illicit trafficking in any such controlled or listed substance or chemical, or endeavored to do so; or

(ii) is the spouse, son, or daughter of an alien inadmissible under clause (i), has, within the previous 5 years, obtained any financial or other benefit from the illicit activity of that alien, and knew or reasonably should have known that the financial or other benefit was the product of such illicit activity, is inadmissible.

Matter of Casillas-Topete, 25 I. & N. Dec. 317 (BIA 2010) (an alien is removable under INA 237(a)(1)(A), as one who was inadmissible at the time of entry or adjustment of status pursuant to INA 212(a)(2)(C), where any appropriate immigration official knew or had reason to believe that the alien was a trafficker in controlled substances at the time of admission to the United States), modifying Matter of Rocha, 20 I. & N. Dec. 944 (BIA 1995) (limited to the inspecting officer only).

Matter of Rico, 16 I. & N. Dec. 181, 186 (BIA 1977); Alarcon-Serrano v. INS, 220 F.3d 1116, 1119 (9th Cir. 2000) (BIA did not rest on the evidence of Rico’s arrest for drug trafficking, but detailed all of the evidence against him, including the undisputed fact that he had a “large quantity of marihuana concealed in his motor vehicle” at the time of his arrest).

See also controlled substance offenses (conviction for a crime involving a controlled substance as defined in 21 U.S.C. §802 (including a “drug trafficking crime,” defined in 18 U.S.C. 944(c) as any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act))