Pubdate: Sun, 29 Mar 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: Front Page
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Richard Marosi, Reporting from Popotla, Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)

THWARTED ON LAND, NOW MOVING BY SEA

With Tougher Enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Smugglers Are 
Going Offshore.

Nallely and Heriberto Salgado boarded the Mexican fishing skiff 
bobbing off the Baja California coast last week and watched warily in 
the moonlight as 19 other people squeezed onto the vessel designed to 
carry no more than a dozen.

A smuggler piloting the 25-foot boat promised a short ride before 
landing on a beach in San Diego.

But 12 hours later, the Salgados were still being lashed with sea 
spray. The thick fog had burned off, leaving a panorama of brilliant 
blue, with no land in sight.

"We saw only ocean all around us," said Nallely Salgado. "And we were 
running out of gas."

With tougher enforcement and new barriers rising on land along the 
U.S.-Mexico border, many would-be immigrants like the ones crowded 
aboard the Tiburon are taking to the sea.

More than 310 people have been arrested on suspected smuggling boats 
since October 2007, more than triple the number from the previous 
18-month time period. Marijuana seizures have also surged, with more 
than 29 tons seized in the same time frame, a more than tenfold rise 
from the previous period.

The increase in maritime smuggling has raised concerns with U.S. 
officials that Mexican trafficking groups are moving to exploit a 
perceived weakness in border defenses. Though sea journeys are risky, 
smugglers appear increasingly willing to take their chances on 
evading the handful of U.S. boats that patrol an area roughly twice 
the size of Los Angeles.

"This is a fast boat," said Keley Hill, San Diego marine operations 
director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as he piloted the 
39-foot Interceptor outside San Diego Harbor. "But it's a big ocean."

Some boats slip through. In recent months, several abandoned vessels, 
with life jackets scattered nearby, have been discovered on beaches 
along the San Diego County coast. And last week, eight bales of 
marijuana weighing 400 pounds floated ashore at a Del Mar beach.

Immigrants once destined for arduous -- and increasingly unsuccessful 
- -- mountain or desert crossings are now shuttled by smuggling groups 
to fishing villages and isolated beaches south of Tijuana. They pay 
as much as $4,000 for the crossing, according to Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement.

Some immigrants have told U.S. authorities that they have departed 
from the run-down village of Popotla, near Rosarito Beach, where 
dozens of brightly colored vessels sit on a small beach lined with 
shanties and seafood stands.

The settlement is filled with out-of-work fishermen, impoverished 
families and some criminal deportees from California.

"They're not leaving from here . . . too many people can see them," 
said one restaurant owner, who declined to give his name out of 
concern for his safety. "But there are lots of beaches nearby where 
nobody would notice."

Smuggling boats often zip toward the first beach inside California, 
typically Imperial Beach or Silver Strand State Beach. Others motor 
across the strait to the Coronado Islands, where they switch vessels 
before heading farther north toward marinas or beaches at Mission 
Beach, Del Mar or Torrey Pines State Beach.

Responsibility for intercepting the boats lies with the U.S. Coast 
Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which together have a 
fleet of about 10 vessels along with at least three helicopters for 
air support.

The smugglers generally use open-topped Mexican fishing boats called 
pangas. The wooden or fiberglass vessels are hard to detect on radar, 
especially in high seas. If spotted, many boat operators spin around 
and head back to Mexico, often successfully. A panga loaded with 25 
people can outrun an 87-foot, diesel-engine cutter, say Coast Guard officers.

Some authorities say staffing levels are too low and the fleet isn't 
large enough.

On a typical night, only two vessels patrol the coastal waters, 
according to the Coast Guard.

Making matters worse is what some federal authorities consider lax 
enforcement of customs laws by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"If you know a boat has cleared customs, that leaves one less boat 
you have to pay attention to," said one federal maritime agent who 
spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak 
to the media.

Most boats coming from Mexico are supposed to clear customs, but in 
practice some don't because the office at Shelter Island in San Diego 
Bay is not staffed, say boaters and federal authorities. Boaters are 
supposed to summon customs agents to the office from a phone at the 
dock, but the slow procedure discourages many from reporting.

Vince Bond, a customs spokesman, said staffing shortages prevent the 
agency from staffing the office full time.

Smugglers -- some of them U.S. citizens -- take greater risks to get 
their cargo of people and drugs through, say federal authorities. 
Boats are often dangerously overcrowded. Immigrants sometimes are not 
provided with life vests. And they aren't permitted to bring 
backpacks with food and water.

Many boats are dilapidated and barely seaworthy. Last year, one 
vessel lost power 20 miles out to sea and drifted for two days with 
15 people aboard. The Coast Guard arrived just in time; the boat was sinking.

Nallely and Heriberto Salgado, from Michoacan, said they were told a 
sea crossing would be easier than their past treks north, which 
included walking through the Arizona desert and crawling through fig 
fields into California.

Nallely Salgado, who is three months pregnant, said the smugglers 
told them to keep their heads down during much of their 15-hour 
journey. People started getting sick. Some vomited. One woman 
fainted, she said.

Noting that the pilot seemed lost, some migrants started to say the 
rosary. When a private boat cruised by, they yelled for help. The 
Coast Guard cutter Haddock soon arrived.

The boat had drifted 22 miles off the San Diego County coast.

When the passenger-laden Haddock arrived at the dock, Salgado said, 
she crossed herself and thanked the officers. She was returned to 
Mexico with her husband.

"Touching land was like being born again," she said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake