The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California announced Tuesday it is charging five Mexican nationals in connection with a boat of migrants that recently capsized in San Diego.
At least three migrants died and one missing person is “presumed dead” after the maritime smuggling incident occurred on Monday.
Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna and Jesus Juan Rodriguez-Leyva were charged with bringing in aliens resulting in death and bringing in aliens for financial gain. The pair face a maximum penalty of death or life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Melissa Jennelle Cota, Gustavo Lara, and Sergio Rojas-Fregosa were charged with transporting illegal aliens, facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Rojas-Fregosa was also identified as an illegal immigrant who had previously been deported in December of 2023, DOJ officials said.
“The drowning deaths of these children are a heartbreaking reminder of how little human traffickers care about the costs of their deadly business,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement. “We are committed to seeking justice for these vulnerable victims, and to holding accountable any traffickers responsible for their deaths.”
Gordon pushed for the death penalty after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem weighed in on the matter on Tuesday.
“This tragic loss of life underscores the deadly reality of maritime human smuggling and why Congress authorized the death penalty when human smuggling results in a death, “she said in a post to X. “I am urging the Attorney General to prosecute the suspects to the fullest extent under the law.”
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey said the people in the boat, which carried over a dozen passengers, “were not tourists.”
“They are believed to be migrants,” he said, per KGTV.
San Diego Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations warned that Monday’s “heartbreaking events” were a reminder that human smuggling is “not only illegal but extremely dangerous.”
THREE DEAD AND NINE MISSING AFTER BOAT WASHES ASHORE IN SAN DIEGO
“Smugglers often treat people as disposable commodities, leading to tragic and sometimes deadly consequences, as we saw in this case,” Shawn Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of HSI San Diego said.
One of the migrants who died when the boat capsized was a 14-year-old boy from India. His 10-year-old sister is still missing at sea while their father is in a coma and their mother is also hospitalized, per the DOJ.
