A fishing boat with 17 Mexican citizens illegally in the United States aboard was seized May 16 by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Catalina Island. Officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine have described the vessel as part of a “human-smuggling operation.”
A fishing boat with 17 Mexican citizens illegally in the United States aboard was seized May 16 by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Catalina Island. Officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine have described the vessel as part of a “human-smuggling operation.”
The vessel was first sighted by Border Patrol agents at about 5:30 p.m. last Friday. It was described as a “heavily-laden 27-foot panga,” the typical type of craft used by both drug smugglers and human smugglers. The vessel was spotted about seven miles off the backside of Catalina.
After noticing the vessel had no visible hull identification numbers, the agents contact the U.S. Coast Guard in Los Angeles for assistance.
A little more than an hour after the initial sighting, the boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard. Border Patrol agents, travelling on an Orange County Sheriff’s Department boat, determined on site that the individuals were not legally in the U.S. According to the agency, two of the occupants were prosecuted for smuggling and will be charged accordingly by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In an interesting twist, the Coast Guard received a report of a second panga in another location off the Southern California coast. The Border Patrol said, however, that this was a false report designed to serve as a diversion to hamper efforts to investigate the original panga.
All of the boat’s occupants were taken to a Border Patrol station for processing. None of the names of the passengers—including the two individuals who were arrested on smuggling charges—were released.
Since October, the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 230 immigrants illegally in the U.S. in maritime smuggling operations off the coast of Southern California.