Thread: CA - Abandoned Panga Boat Discovered Onshore at Goleta Beach

By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer
Published on 01.18.2013 2:24 p.m.


Investigators examine a panga found early Friday at Goleta Beach. Authorities suspect it was used for smuggling, but no drugs or suspects were found. (John Palminteri / KEYT News photo)

A Santa Barbara County Parks Department employee discovered an abandoned panga boat on the shore of Goleta Beach early Friday morning.

Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said the 30-foot craft had no evidence of drugs aboard, but it had life jackets, evidence of food and clothing, and more than 15 containers of fuel.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene and later turned the investigation over to the Department of Homeland Security, Hoover said.

She said no arrests have been made.

Parks maintenance employees found the boat at 5:18 a.m., which was a small, fiberglass boat with one outboard motor, said Lori Haley of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officials are handling the investigation.

The boat had 20 gas cans, 20 lifejackets and wet clothing in it, so it was possibly used to smuggle a load of migrants, Haley said.

ICE is constantly working on the issue of panga smuggling boats making their way up the California coastline and is actively investigating the boat found Friday morning, she said.

In Santa Barbara County alone, there were 20 incidents of panga boats last year. This was the first one discovered this year.

In December, a U.S. Coast Guard crewman was killed and another injured when their boat was rammed by suspected drug smugglers in a panga boat near Santa Cruz Island.

Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne was thrown from the rigid inflatable boat, which launched from the Coast Guard Cutter Halibut to approach the panga-type vessel suspected of illegal activities.

Horne, 34, of Redondo Beach, died after suffering traumatic head injuries and other Coast Guard crews were able to stop the fleeing panga boat close to the California-Mexico border, according to the Coast Guard.

Shortly afterward, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and other Californian congressional delegates wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, asking to be updated on actions taken to combat the increase in panga smuggling along the coastline. They also want to know more about how the federal government is working with state and local law enforcement officials.

“(Panga boats) have been found up the California coast as far as San Francisco, and due to the increase in enforcement in the southern California region an increasing number have also been landing on the Central Coast. This increase is cause for concern, especially given the possibility for these boats to smuggle more dangerous cargo, like weapons and potential terrorists,” the letter states.

“Unfortunately, it is hard to estimate the true prevalence of these boats as we can only count those intercepted by law enforcement or that are found abandoned on our shores. In that way, the issue could be even worse and yet we know nothing about them.”

Abandoned Panga Boat Discovered Onshore at Goleta Beach

Posted by Jimmy Chang on January 22, 2013 at 12:48 pm
The Daily Nexus



The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is investigating the possibility of human smuggling after a 30-foot panga boat was found washed up on Goleta Beach last Friday morning.

The fiberglass boat, which was discovered by beach maintenance workers at around 5 a.m., had a single outboard motor and contained approximately 20 gas cans, 12 life jackets, several articles of black clothing and some food, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley. While this is the first recorded panga boat-related incident in Santa Barbara County this year, over 20 such instances were reported throughout the area in 2012.

According to Haley, Homeland Security officials suspect human smuggling activity due to the food and clothing found on the boat.

“We don’t believe it was drugs because of the clothing that was found, and the life jackets and the food,” Haley said. “It was probably human smuggling — migrants, people trying to get here from Mexico or another country.”

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Dave Wells, who is currently in charge of the investigation of maritime smuggling off the Santa Barbara coast, said panga boat contraband smuggling is a common occurrence in California’s southern coastal waters.

“[Foreign smugglers] are in route to the United States to various locations throughout Southern California,” Wells said. “They carry various forms of contrabands or people.”

According to Wells, this contraband may not be limited to drug and human smuggling. Wells said Homeland Security attempts to monitor potential smuggling activity by collaborating with state and local law enforcement agencies and encouraging the public to report any suspicious situations.

“The federal law enforcement entities under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella [has] a whole number of us working collaboratively with our state and local partners to combat this issue,” Wells said. “We are doing it through a number of different ways, but the biggest thing is just having people keep their eyes and ears open for these types of events and notify law enforcement when they do see something that doesn’t seem right.”

Last month, U.S. Coast Guard veteran Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III was killed during a panga boat confrontation off the coast of Santa Barbara. According to Wells, the officer and his partner were issuing a warning to the smugglers who then responded by ramming their large ship into the smaller Coast Guard boat.

Wells said such smugglers are extremely dangerous and that civilians should report any potential sightings to law enforcement immediately and avoid becoming involved in the situation at all costs.

“The people these cartels employ are not very nice people,” Wells said. “They are willing to take great risks to bring in their cargo, whether they be contrabands or the people that they’ve been hired to introduce to the country.”

Wells said these cartels use a highly sophisticated communication system and strategically plan landings with lookouts on shore to signal incoming boats.

“From our homeland security standpoint, anything that is brought in clandestinely like that is a potential threat to the public and the people of this great country,” Wells said. “That is very great concern to us. People that wish to this country harm is a great concern. Any kind of contraband introduced — whether it is drugs or guns or anything else — is a huge concern to us as well, in addition to weapons that can hurt a lot of people.”

Wells said his team has intercepted many smugglers with the help of civilians who have contacted the authorities, and that Homeland Security recently initiated a program to encourage the public to remain vigilant.

“The Department of Homeland Security came out earlier with a program that was very simply put: ‘If you see something, say something.’ If you see something that doesn’t seem right, report it,” Wells said. “Help us protect this country that we all love, and that’s what we are trying to do is to protect the public and the people of this great country and keep us safe.”

Homeland Security To Investigate Human Smuggling After Panga Boat Found In Goleta