Boat captain charged in California smuggling wreck that left three dead
The man behind the wheel of a boat that crashed into a reef near San Diego Sunday with more than 30 smuggled passengers on board was charged in federal court Wednesday.
Antonio Hurtado has been charged with attempting to bring in migrants at a place other than a port of entry and assault on a federal officer, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Passengers paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. on the boat, they told Homeland Security Investigations agents during interviews. All but one were Mexican nationals.
But around 10 a.m. Sunday, the 40-foot trawler-style boat crashed into the rocks below Cabrillo National Monument.
Three passengers, 29-year-old Victor Perez Degollado, 41-year-old Maria Eugenia Chavez Segovia and 35-year-old Maricela Hernandez Sanchez, drowned after suffering blunt-force injuries from the crash, according to the Union-Tribune.
Two passengers, one Guatemalan and one Mexican, were also hospitalized.
Witnesses, including a Navy air crewman and a former Navy sailor who happened to be in the area, helped rescue the passengers until first responders arrived.
“It was absolutely horrific,” Assemblyman Chris Ward, who was at the tide pools with his 7-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, told the Union-Tribune. “It is just horrifying to see firsthand, because you know it’s a humanitarian crisis that brought them there.”
While being arrested, Hurtado allegedly kneed a Border Patrol agent in the head, thus the assault charge.
