5 charged in fatal capsize of alleged human-smuggling boat in San Diego County
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KESQ) - Five people were facing federal charges today in connection with an alleged maritime human-smuggling event that killed three people -- including a teenage boy -- off the coast of northern San Diego County and left a 10-year-old girl missing and presumed dead.
Emergency crews responding to the mass-casualty boating accident at about 7 a.m. Monday found the bodies of 18-year-old Marcos Lozada-Juarez, Gorgonio Placido-Diaz, 55, and Prince Patel, 14, on the Del Mar shoreline, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office and a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Lozada-Juarez and Gorgonio Placido-Diaz were Mexican nationals, and Prince was from India and traveling with his parents and younger sister, the court document states. All three drowned, the medical examiner reported.
Eight migrants initially missing following the accident were eventually located, but the deceased teen's sibling remains unaccounted for and is believed to have died in the accident.
Paramedics took four of the survivors to medical centers for treatment of injuries ranging in severity from minor to critical, according to the Encinitas Fire Department, which responded to the emergency along with its counterparts from Del Mar and Solana Beach. Later in the morning, two other people who identified themselves as having been in the traveling party were located and taken to a hospital for evaluations.
At about 10:45 p.m. Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended its daylong search of hundreds of square miles of ocean and shoreline for any still-missing victims of the accident.
Prosecutors say two of the five people who allegedly took part in facilitating the smuggling event were arrested on the beach near the scene of the rescue operation.
Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, both of Mexico, admitted piloting the vessel and smuggling 15 people into the United States, according to a probable-cause statement attached to a complaint filed in San Diego federal court.
The other three defendants, Melissa Jennelle Cota, 33, Gustavo Lara, 32, and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31, all of Mexico, were arrested Monday night in Chula Vista, officials said.
A separate complaint states that an SUV was spotted near the accident scene in Del Mar and traveling off, possibly after the driver picked up some of the survivors of the capsizing. The vehicle was found Monday parked off Flower Street in Chula Vista.
Two other vehicles nearby were stopped by Border Patrol agents, leading to the arrests of the three defendants, as well as the detention of the remaining undocumented migrants.
One migrant told investigators he planned to pay $10,000 to be smuggled into the United States, while another said he agreed to pay $13,000, according to one of the court documents in the case.
