Another smuggler's boat lands off the Palos Verdes Peninsula

By Larry Altman Staff Writer
Posted: 08/09/2011 09:19:08 AM PDT
Updated: 08/09/2011 11:36:24 AM PDT

Los Angeles County lifeguard rescue swimmers signal a boat to tow empty gas cans off the beach near Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes Estates. A 20-foot panga style boat capsized in the surf earlier Tuesday (Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer)

About a dozen blue gasoline cans also were found on the rocky shore below the 700 block of Paseo Del Mar, police said.

An investigation was under way today on a Palos Verdes Estates beach following the discovery of a capsized smugglers' boat in the water.

About a dozen blue gasoline cans also were found on the rocky shore below the 700 block of Paseo Del Mar, police said.

A paddle boarder called police about 6:30 a.m. when he spotted the panga and what looked like a couple of life jackets floating near it, Palos Verdes Estates police Capt. Mark Velez said.

"We cordoned off the area," Velez said. "The boat is still in the water."

Officers found no one on the shoreline. Divers will likely investigate whether any marijuana is on board.

"It looks like they are either smuggling people or drugs," he said.

Palos Verdes Estates police officers, county lifeguards, U.S. Coast Guard officers and Harbor Patrol officers were investigating, along with two federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Velez said.

The boat appeared to be similar to the 25-foot Mexican fishing vessels discovered recently on Palos Verdes Peninsula beaches and in Orange County as smugglers use the ocean to evade tougher conditions at border stops on land.

On May 13, a 25-foot skiff was found abandoned on the same Palos Verdes Estates beach. More than 100 gallons of fuel in 5-gallon containers were on board.

Deputies said the boat was not registered in the United States, and the life jackets and materials on board were in Spanish, leading investigators to believe the boat arrived from Mexico.

On July 1, sheriff's deputies discovered a sinking 25-foot boat and 200 pounds of marijuana at Point Vicente Fishing Access, a cove between the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and Terranea Resort.

Authorities said

On Tuesday, emergency boats surround the submerged hull of a panga-style boat that came from Mexico and was capsized near Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes Estates. No suspects or bodies were found at the scene, but 17 large gas cans were recovered. (Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer)the boat might have been used as part of a drug- or people-smuggling operation from Mexico.

In addition to the boat and bales of marijuana, deputies found 18 full blue fuel canisters, and yellow rain coats scattered along the beach.

On Sunday, Orange County sheriff's deputies arrested three suspected smugglers on a small boat from Mexico about a mile from the Newport Beach coastline.

Lifeguards and Harbor Patrol officers intercepted the boat and arrested the men on suspicion of drug possession, smuggling and trying to illegally enter the United States, deputies said.

larry.altman@dailybreeze.com

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