GUILTY CA- San Diego - Boat carrying suspected illegal aliens capsizes - 4 dead, 24 injured

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Boat off San Diego coast in possible smuggling operation capsizes, kills 4, injures 24, authorities say

San Diego boat capsizes killing 4, injuring 24 in possible smuggling operation
A boat off the coast of San Diego overturned Sunday morning, killing four people and injuring 24 others -- one critically -- in what authorities say was a smuggling operation.

The incident happened around 10:15 a.m. off Point Loma near Cabrillo National Monument. Lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded to the scene after reports of an overturned vessel in the surf near the rocky peninsula.

Authorities recovered three bodies in the surf, San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Rick Romero said. One person was rescued from a cliff and 22 others managed to make it to shore, he said.

 

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Names of those killed released, and Captain charged.

Captain allegedly behind deadly San Diego boat wreck involving illegal immigrants charged in federal court

"Maria Eugenia Chavez Segovia, 41; Maricela Hernandez Sanchez, 35; and Victor Perez Degollado, 29, drowned after suffering blunt-force injuries to their heads, according to the San Diego County medical examiner's office. "

"A man who was the alleged pilot of a boat that was smuggling immigrants when it broke apart off San Diego’s coast, resulting in three deaths on Sunday, has been charged in federal court.

Investigators say Antonio Hurtado, a U.S. citizen, was piloting the boat. He was arrested on suspicion of bringing in or harboring illegal immigrants and assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent, according to the affidavit obtained by Fox News."

"The migrants told investigators they paid $15,000 to $18,000 each to be smuggled into the U.S. on the boat. All but one were Mexican citizens, including two 15-year-olds – a boy and a girl – who were traveling alone. A Guatemalan man remains hospitalized."

 

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For subscribers: The tangled journey of an accused U.S. boat captain to a deadly smuggling run off San Diego

Antonio Hurtado does not cut the typical profile of a maritime smuggler. Yet he is accused of wrecking a trawler, killing three migrants aboard.

www.latimes.com

Oct. 26, 2021

Man Sentenced 18 Years for Point Loma Boat Crash That Killed 3 Immigrants in May

Aug 12

Boat captain sentenced for deadly smuggling crash

Aug 14
SBM

The captain who crashed his boat into the San Diego reef last year, killing three of the 32 smuggled migrants aboard, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison. Antonio Hurtado, 40, pleaded guilty in April to felony charges of attempted human smuggling resulting in death and attempted human smuggling for financial gain relating to each of the three migrants who died.