Pot-smuggling panga busted in Manhattan Beach, 2 detained
A fishing boat from Mexico arrived in Manhattan Beach Saturday before dawn, carrying 1,850 lbs of marijuana

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers approach the panga carrying 1,850 lbs of marijuana early Saturday morning in El Porto. At least four MBPD officers were on site. Photo by Gus McConnell.

On Saturday, around 1:30 a.m., a U.S. Border Patrol agent was conducting a routine surveillance of the southern end of Ranchos Palos Verdes waters when he spotted an open-topped fishing boat. The vessel was speeding northbound without lights. The agent was able to see it with the help of his night vision system.
He alerted another patrol agent monitoring the north side of Palos Verdes, and the two kept their eyes on the boat for an hour and a half, until it turned toward shore at the north end of Manhattan Beach. When they lost sight of the boat, they called for support.
About a half hour later, at approximately 3:30 a.m., the Manhattan Beach Police Department’s watch commander received a phone call from a resident who reported seeing an abandoned white boat near the shore of 45th Street, near the El Segundo border.
A criminal complaint filed Sunday by Homeland Security Investigations special agent Jeremy O’Hara details the investigation, which led to the arrests of two Mexican nationals.
MBPD quickly radioed its patrol officers, one of whom was already in the vicinity. He reported that the boat was a panga, an outboard-powered fishing boat commonly used for smuggling contraband and people from Mexico, Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Ron Walker said.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers observe the boat from the shore. Photo by Gus McConnell

“[The officer] was there before anybody else, and then everybody, all the federal agents, showed up,” Sgt. Walker said. “At the time we didn’t know that they had been monitoring the boat. We secured the scene and they took over the investigation.”
About this same time, photographer Gus McConnell was awakened at his 44th Street home, a few blocks up from the beach, by the sound of a low-flying helicopter. When he looked outside, he saw the helicopter’s searchlight sweeping the beach.
McConnell grabbed his camera and rushed down to The Strand, where he met a man with a metal detector.
The man told him that he was the one who had called the Manhattan Beach police about the panga.
“I couldn’t tell if it was drugs or people. It didn’t look like bales [of marijuana]. It looked like luggage, travel luggage.” the unidentified man told McConnell, who videotaped the interview.
Around 3:45 a.m., border patrol agents approached the white panga, bearing the name La Mina or “mine” in black lettering, and discovered piles of large, black suitcases stuffed with approximately 1,850 pounds of marijuana. Also on the boat were two lifejackets, two pairs of pants and 14 ten-gallon gas cans, half of which were still full and the other half empty.
During a search for the panga’s crew, federal agents came across a man camping in a tent on the beach. The man told them that he had been approached by two Hispanic males who did not speak English and they had left their belongings, including clothing, outside his tent.
Just 50 feet from the man’s tent, an agent found the two men hiding in a bush under a tree. They fit the camper’s description of the suspects, and were wearing wet clothing caked with sand. The two reeked of gasoline.
At around 5:30 a.m., Armando Natividad Soberanes-Rios and Rocque Mendez-Garcia, both Mexican nationals, were arrested and transported to the U.S. Border Patrol Station in San Clemente for questioning.
McConnell said that after he interviewed the man with the metal detector, he ran on to the beach where he photographed about a dozen law enforcement officers with automatic weapons examining the boat and posing for photos.
The boat was in just a few inches of water, with its large outboard engines pulled up, suggesting it had come in with the high tide. Late Friday evening, there was a full moon and an unusually high 6.8-foot high tide.
The panga boat came ashore under a full moon Saturday before dawn. Photo by Gus McConnell

McConnell said he videotaped the officers loading the suspected contraband into lifeguard trucks for transport up the beach to a waiting law enforcement van.
“The bags wouldn’t all fit in the van, so they had to load some of it into the bed of a pick-up,” he said.
As dawn broke, a lifeguard Baywatch boat towed the panga off the beach.
“The surf was really good that morning, and the surfers were bummed because the entire El Porto parking lot was cordoned off until the van and pickup left about 7:30 a.m.” McConnell said.
Sunday afternoon, McConnell said he and his neighbors were drinking beers and talking about the panga when they were approached by Special Agent O’Hara.
Federal authorities seized 1,850 pounds of bulk marijuana packed in large black suitcases. Its estimated worth is between $183,500 and $917,500. Photo by Gus McConnell

O’Hara asked if anyone had witnessed anything unusual the previous morning, prior to the arrival of law enforcement agents. None had, but they told the agent about the Surfline.com video camera on a neighbor’s house that records the El Porto surf 24 hours a day.
According to the criminal complaint, when they were taken in for interview, Mendez invoked his right to counsel while Soberanes made his statements without an attorney.
In his interview with a federal agent, Soberanes, 29, said he and Mendez departed from Ensenada, Mexico last Tuesday. The two were roommates, and Mendez, who admitted to having previously served 21 months in prison for smuggling people into the U.S. before returning to Mexico, had offered Soberanes $5,000 to accompany him on the voyage. Soberanes said, at the time, he thought they would be smuggling people, not marijuana.
Soberanes also claimed that nobody was waiting for the delivery.
According to Homeland Security Investigations agents, low grade marijuana from Mexico is valued at $100 to $500 per pound, totaling in this case between $183,500 and $917,500. The Los Angeles Border Enforcement Security Task Force seized the marijuana and is continuing its investigation, DHS-ICE Spokeswoman Lori Haley said.
The two suspects are being held in Monterey Park Municipal Jail.
　
　
　
　

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