Five Mexican nationals are facing charges on a boat carrying more than a dozen people Slope on the San Diego CoastThe U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern California announced Tuesday that three passengers were killed, including a 14-year-old boy from India.
Prosecutors confirmed in a press release that the boy's parents and two other people were hospitalized after the human smuggling. Nine immigrants on board were missing and believed to be dead, but authorities later found eight of them in Chula Vista, nearly 30 miles from the ship's Del Mar. A 10-year-old Indian girl, the boy's sister, is still missing, prosecutors said.
"The drowning deaths of these children are heartbreaking, which reminds people of the small fatal cost of human traffickers," U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement.
The Mexican Consulate General confirmed in Santiago on Tuesday that two dead and two hospitalized people have been Mexican nationals.
Prosecutors said two of the five suspected traffickers, Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, were arrested on the beach on Monday. The U.S. Attorney's Office said they were accused of introducing aliens, causing death and bringing foreigners for economic gain.
Prosecutors said three other suspects - Melissa Jennelle Cota, Gustavo Lara and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso - found a car on a beach in Del Mar and investigated and were arrested Monday night, prosecutors said. When the vehicle's driver fled, officers found two other vehicles involved and found missing migrants, prosecutors said.
Cota, Lara and Rojas-Fregoso are accused of transporting illegal foreigners. Prosecutors said Rojas-Fregoso had been deported on December 19, 2023.
It is not clear whether the suspect has a lawyer to speak on their behalf.
U.S. Coast Guard police officer Chris Sappey told the Associated Press that it is not clear where the ship came from about 35 miles north of the Mexican border. He said similar ships are often used by smugglers.
In 2023, Eight people were killed When two ships tilt off the San Diego coast.