At least 8 dead after migrant boats overturn off California coast

At least eight people have died after two fishing boats capsized off the coast of San Diego, California, in an apparent migrant smuggling operation, emergency officials said Sunday.

The emergency crew of San Diego began a search and recovery operation last Friday night, after receiving a 911 call from a Spanish-speaker about a fishing boat in distress on the coast of San Diego’s Black’s Beach.

Crews arrived to find two fishing boats capsized in an area of ​​366 meters, and eight bodies were recovered from the water and the beach, San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division Chief James Gartland said.

“This is one of the worst smuggling tragedies I think in California, certainly in the city of San Diego,” Gartland said.

Officials did not know the nationalities of the victims but told reporters that all were adults.

Adverse weather conditions may have jeopardized maritime smuggling operations, and hampered rescue efforts overnight, officials said. The US Coast Guard and San Diego’s Lifeguard Fire-Rescue division were still involved in recovery operations as of Sunday morning.

Eric Lavergne, a special operations supervisor with the US Border Patrol in San Diego, said it was one of several hundred migrant smuggling incidents recorded in the jurisdiction this fiscal year, matching levels in recent years.

These include incidents of migrants swimming, traveling on surfboards or taking panga fishing boats to cross to the US, he said.