Federal authorities announced charges on Tuesday against five individuals linked to a migrant boat tragedy that overturned near San Diego’s Pacific coast, resulting in three fatalities, including a 14-year-old boy from India.
The boy’s 10-year-old sister is missing at sea and is believed to be deceased, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego. Their parents are among four people hospitalized due to injuries, with the father currently in a coma.
The other victims were Mexican nationals, including an 18-year-old boy and another man, as confirmed by the Mexican consulate. The 18-year-old’s 16-year-old girlfriend is also hospitalized after experiencing respiratory complications from water inhalation. The consulate is coordinating with their families in Mexico for the repatriation of the deceased.
Nine people were initially reported missing. All but the 10-year-old girl were found late Monday by Border Patrol agents conducting operations in the San Diego area, officials said.
The search efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard stopped late Monday. Crews combed the area via helicopter and a cutter for hours after the boat flipped shortly after sunrise about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the Mexico border. Officials described the skiff as a panga, a small wooden open-air boat used to fish but also commonly used by smugglers to bring people into the U.S. from Mexico.
Two Mexican citizens were arrested at the beach near where the boat overturned. They were charged with human smuggling resulting in death, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death or life in prison.
Border Patrol agents found eight migrants after they managed to make it to shore. The agents also identified vehicles with drivers who were waiting to pick up the migrants as part of the smuggling scheme, according to court documents.
U.S. authorities arrested the three drivers, all Mexican citizens, and charged them with unlawfully transporting migrants, according to court documents. One had been deported in 2023 from the U.S.
It was unclear if any of the defendants had defense attorneys, and they could not be reached for comment. The Mexican consulate said they have not been contacted by any of the accused yet to ask for legal help.
Seven of the eight migrants are also from Mexico and were interviewed by the consular staff.
“The drowning deaths of these children are a heartbreaking reminder of how little human traffickers care about the costs of their deadly business,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said. “We are committed to seeking justice for these vulnerable victims, and to holding accountable any traffickers responsible for their deaths.”
Migrants are increasingly turning to the risky alternative offered by smugglers to travel by sea to avoid heavily guarded land borders, including off California’s coast. Pangas leave the Mexican coast in the dead of night.
In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog. One capsized in the surf. It was one of the deadliest maritime smuggling cases in waters off the U.S. coast.
A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison in 2022 for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that smashed apart in powerful surf off San Diego’s coast, killing three people and injuring more than two dozen others.
