60 Migrants Interdicted in SoCal Smuggling

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that Air and Marine Operations crews and partner agencies stopped three smuggling boats off Southern California and apprehended 60 people. (cbp.gov) The first interdiction came April 17, when an Air and Marine Operations aircrew spotted a 24-foot vessel south of the maritime boundary line. San Diego Marine Unit crews stopped it near San Clemente Island and took 13 people — seven men, five women and one juvenile girl — to Ballast Point Naval Base for Border Patrol processing. (cbp.gov) (fox5sandiego.com) The second boat was detected April 18 about 80 nautical miles southwest of Point Loma. A Long Beach Marine Unit crew and the Coast Guard cutter Florence Finch intercepted it near San Nicolas Island and took 29 Mexican nationals to Newport Harbor. (cbp.gov) (fox5sandiego.com) The third case ended April 21, when the Coast Guard cutter Terrell Horne, guided by a Customs and Border Protection aircrew, stopped a 25-foot cuddy-cabin boat first seen a day earlier off Ensenada, Mexico. The Coast Guard said 18 Mexican nationals were aboard. (cbp.gov) (news.uscg.mil) Customs and Border Protection said some of the 60 people had criminal histories that included driving under the influence, felony hit-and-run, drug possession, burglary, drug trafficking, aggravated assault with a weapon and domestic violence. The agency did not break out which cases those records were tied to. (cbp.gov) (fox5sandiego.com) The new cases fit a pattern off San Diego and the Southern California coast this year. On Feb. 24, the Coast Guard said it and other Department of Homeland Security agencies, with Navy support, interdicted five suspected smuggling vessels south of San Clemente Island and apprehended 62 people in under 90 minutes. (news.uscg.mil) That pace has continued into April. The Coast Guard separately reported interdictions of 18 people near San Clemente Island on April 22 and five suspected migrants at the entrance to San Diego Bay on April 27. (news.uscg.mil 1) (news.uscg.mil 2) Air and Marine Operations Southwest Region Executive Director Hunter Robinson said the recent cases involved “unsafe, overcrowded vessels” and said crews were trying to stop them far from shore. The 60 people from the three April interdictions were turned over for U.S. Border Patrol processing. (cbp.gov)