17 apprehended, 3 injured from suspected smuggling boat off La Jolla

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Border Patrol agents in San Diego apprehended 20 migrants boarding a panga 18 miles west of La Jolla, Calif., last Sunday.

U.S. Border Patrol says Air and Marine Operation agents found the boat with navigational lights off the California coast just after 11 p.m.

Agents found 20 people boarding the boat, 12 men and eight women. Paramedics transported three men with injuries to the hospital, but they took the rest to the nearest station for processing.

“Transnational Criminal Organizations remain a threat to our national security and public safety,” said U.S. Border Patrol San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke. “They are heavily involved in every kind of smuggling – moving people and narcotics through their elaborate criminal networks with no regard for the lives they destroy.”

The migrants are from Guatemala, Salvador, and Mexico. This is the third panga incident agents have come across in San Diego in the last month and a half.