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Panga that Washed Ashore in El Segundo Carried a Boatload of Deported Felons
Photo by lowjumpingfrog via Flickr
Many of the passengers on a small boat that washed ashore in El Segundo this week were criminals who were trying to sneak back into the United States after being deported.
Out of the 20 people aboard the small panga, 14 of them had criminal records that resulted in their deportation, according to The Daily Breeze. Their convictions ran the gamut: there were convicted murderers, attempted murderers, robbers, burglars, drugs dealers who had pushed meth, coke, heroin and LSD. Some of them had spousal abuse convictions, others were convicted of animal cruelty.
The criminals and noncriminals alike intended to pay their smugglers up to $8,500 for the trip, The Daily Breeze reports. All of them hopped aboard a fishing boat in Tijuana in choppy waters before being transferred to a panga that headed west of Catalina before turning back to the mainland. But the captain got lost somewhere along the way and the boat missed its drop-off point. That's how the group ended up at a beach on El Segundo surrounded by police.
Stories about immigrants being smuggled into the United States on boats are becoming more common as smugglers try to evade increased security at the border. But it's worth heading over to The Daily Breeze to check out the full in-depth story that relies on records from investigators to tell the tale about this week's smuggling mission that went awry.
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