(Photo: Brandyn Hill / U.S. Coast Guard)
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday called off its search for more survivors from a boat that capsized off a rocky shoal near San Diego in what authorities said was an ill-fated migrant-smuggling operation that left three dead and five hospitalized.
The 40-foot trawler-style vessel with 32 people aboard overturned and broke apart on Sunday near the Point Loma Tide Pools, part of a federal marine national monument about 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said.
Officials on Sunday said four people aboard the boat had perished, but the Coast Guard on Monday revised the death toll downward to three, citing information from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office.
San Diego boat wreck kills 3, shows risks of ocean smuggling
May. 04, 2021 at 6:00 am
ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
A tractor-trailer slams into an SUV at an intersection on a remote California desert highway, killing 13 of 25 people crammed inside the late model Ford Expedition.
A man dangles a toddler over a border wall near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, allowing her to fall on her face before he disappears into Mexico.
A 40-foot (12.2-meter) cabin cruiser overloaded with 32 people capsizes just off the San Diego coast, killing three and critically injuring another person. The others aboard survived, with one in critical condition.
The incidents, which occurred over the last two months, show how smugglers put migrants at extraordinary peril for profits, whether by car, on foot or at sea.
At lease three people died when the suspected smuggling boat broke apart on rocks at Point Loma. Author: David Gotfredson (Investigative Producer) Published: 6:04 PM PDT May 3, 2021 Updated: 6:04 PM PDT May 3, 2021
In March, 13 people died in Holtville, when a semi-truck plowed into a SUV carrying 25 passengers.
Border Patrol agents in San Diego pointed out the dangers of crossing into the United States illegally.
“The reality is crossing the border illegally is unsafe no matter the method, especially at sea,” said San Diego Border Patrol supervisor Jeff Stephenson.
“The smugglers, they don’t care about the people they re exploiting. All they care about is profit,” said Stephenson.
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In the waters off San Diego, the smuggling boats often cloak their cargoes of migrants under cover of darkness. Only the hum of the panga boat engines signals their approach to slumbering coastal neighborhoods.
But on Sunday morning it was clear and bright when Cale Foy spotted a horrible sight unfolding at the base of the craggy cliffs of Point Loma.
A 40-foot trawler-style boat had crashed into the rocks, spilling men and women and a teenager into the pounding waves and a rip current so strong that it was dragging some farther from shore.
Foy, a naval aircrewman on a hike with his family, didn’t hesitate to dive into the choppy surf.