{"id":121084,"date":"2021-05-03T11:27:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T03:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=121084"},"modified":"2021-05-03T12:09:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T04:09:07","slug":"three-dead-after-suspected-people-smuggling-boat-capsizes-off-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=121084","title":{"rendered":"Three dead after suspected people-smuggling boat capsizes off San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SAN DIEGO, May 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three people have died and more than two dozen taken to hospital after a wooden boat capsized on Sunday during a possible human smuggling operation just off the San Diego<\/a> coast, authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lifeguards, the US coast guard and other agencies responded around 10.30am PT following reports of an overturned vessel near the peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego fire-rescue department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original call was for a handful of people overboard but as rescuers arrived in boats and jet skis they quickly realized \u201cit was going to be a bigger situation with more people,\u201d said San Diego Lifeguard Services Lieutenant Rick Romero. \u201cThere are people in the water, drowning, getting sucked out the rip current there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven people were pulled from the waves, including three who drowned, said Romero. One person was rescued from a cliff and 22 others managed to make it to shore on their own, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce we arrived on scene, the boat had basically been broken apart,\u201d Romero said. \u201cConditions were pretty rough: 5 to 6 feet of surf, windy, cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 27 people were transported to hospitals with \u201ca wide variety of injuries\u201d including hypothermia, Romero said. Most of the victims were able to walk themselves to ambulances, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials said the group was overcrowded on a 12-meter cabin cruiser that is larger than the typical open-top wooden panga-style boats often used by smugglers to bring people illegally into the US from Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery indication from our perspective was this was a smuggling vessel. We haven\u2019t confirmed their nationality,\u201d said Jeff Stephenson, a supervising agent with US Border Patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Items
Items from a boat sit on the shoreline at Cabrillo National Monument<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Jose Ysea said when he arrived on scene near the Cabrillo National Monument there was a \u201clarge debris field\u201d of splintered wood and other items in the choppy waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn that area of Point Loma it\u2019s very rocky. It\u2019s likely the waves just kept pounding the boat, breaking it apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were life preservers on board, but it wasn\u2019t known how many or whether any passengers were wearing them, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the rescuers was an unnamed Navy sailor who was in the area with his family and jumped in the water to assist someone in an effort described by Romero as a \u201chuge help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials believed everyone on board was accounted for right away, but crews in boats and aircraft continued to search the area for several hours for other possible survivors, Ysea said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Border Patrol often spots pangas off San Diego, many crowded with about 20 passengers. Some have landed hundreds of miles north of the US-Mexico border. Deaths are unusual but not unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, border officials intercepted a panga type vessel traveling without navigation lights 11 miles off Point Loma with 21 people on board. The crew took 15 men and six women into custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agents determined all were Mexican citizens with no legal status to enter the US, according to a statement released by Customs and Border Protection. Two of the people on the boat, the suspected smugglers, will face federal charges, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Border Patrol on Friday said law enforcement officials would be ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the coast of San Diego this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As warmer weather comes to San Diego, there is a misperception that it will make illegal crossings safer or easier, the agency said in a statement. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO, May 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three people have died and more than two dozen taken to hospital after a wooden boat capsized on Sunday during a possible human smuggling operation just off the San Diego coast, authorities said. Local lifeguards, the US coast guard and other agencies responded around 10.30am PT following reports of an overturned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":121103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121084"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/121103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}