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The sinking of a trawler-like boat loaded with people in search of a better life in the United States was the latest evidence that tougher border security is driving smugglers into the ocean.
Smugglers increasingly employ boats like the one that broke up on a Point Loma reef Sunday to get people and drugs into the United States undetected, according to border officials. The accident sent 32 people into the cold, rough waters, killing four.
Arrests at sea in the San Diego sector nearly doubled in 2020 from the year before, to 1,273 from 662, according to data provided by Shane Crottie, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Local operations seized 118 vessels in 309 smuggling attempts last year, up from 80 boats and 195 attempts in 2019. So far in fiscal year 2021, which began on Oct. 1, there have been 156 local maritime smuggling attempts, 909 arrests and 76 vessels seized.