Dad in coma, son dead and 10-year-old daughter missing after migrant boat capsizes; 5 charged
Tragic new details about the deadly smuggling incident came to light Tuesday.
The body of a 14-year-old boy from India was among three recovered following the accident, and his 10-year-old sister remains missing at sea and is presumed dead, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The siblings' parents were rescued, but the father is now in a coma, and the mother remains hospitalized.
'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. Atty. 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.'
The U.S. Coast Guard received a call around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday reporting that a small panga-style boat with an estimated 16 people on board had overturned just north of Torrey Pines State Beach, said Hunter Schnabel, a Coast Guard public affairs officer.
Bystanders and San Diego lifeguards were able to rescue four people. Three bodies were recovered from the scene, and nine people were initially unaccounted for.
Two of the smuggling suspects — Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, both of Mexico — were arrested on the beach, prosecutors said.
They have been charged with bringing in migrants resulting in death, which has a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. Although the death penalty remains legal in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a moratorium on executions, in effect halting them during his tenure.
They are also charged with bringing in migrants for financial gain, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Three additional arrests were made Monday night after Border Patrol agents spotted a car, which had been seen earlier near the accident scene, some 25 miles south in Chula Vista, which is just 10 miles north of the Mexican border. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene.
Agents continued their investigation and successfully stopped two other vehicles involved in the smuggling incident, authorities said. Inside the vehicles, they discovered eight of the nine missing migrants, with the exception of the 10-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
The drivers of the vehicles — Melissa Jenelle Cota, 33, Gustavo Lara, 32, and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31 — were arrested and charged with the transportation of undocumented immigrants, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Rojas-Fregoso faced an additional charge for being in the country illegally after having been previously deported in December 2023, prosecutors said. This charge is punishable by up to two years in prison.
'Human smuggling, regardless of the route, is not only illegal but extremely dangerous. Smugglers often treat people as disposable commodities,' Shawn Gibson, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, San Diego, said in a statement. 'Yesterday's heartbreaking events are a stark reminder of the urgent need to dismantle these criminal networks driven by greed.'
The smuggling of migrants is a persistent problem along the California coastline and one that often has deadly consequences.
In 2023, at least eight people died when two migrant smuggling boats overturned off Black's Beach in San Diego County. A year earlier, a man and two women died when a panga boat crashed into rocks at the base of the cliffs of Point Loma in San Diego.
Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Battle-tested cop is Mexico's hope to tame cartels and placate Trump
MEXICO CITY - His heart pounding, Omar García Harfuch crouched inside an armored SUV as hooded cartel assassins opened fire in one of Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods just as dawn broke one morning in 2020. Bullets tore through his collarbone, arm and knee. Two bodyguards were bloodied and would soon die. García Harfuch grabbed one of their rifles and began shooting back, trying to fend off attackers until reinforcements arrived. Then Mexico City's police chief, García Harfuch didn't just survive the assassination attempt. His resolve stiffened, and his career took off. Now, as President Claudia Sheinbaum's security minister, he's Mexico's top cop. It's a big job, more so now that Donald Trump has placed relentless pressure on Sheinbaum to vanquish drug cartels and end fentanyl trafficking - or face punishing tariffs on Mexican goods. Trump is even signaling potential military force to strike drug lords himself. That has thrust García Harfuch into the spotlight as Sheinbaum works to satisfy Trump's demands, putting him at the center of both talks over a new U.S. security agreement that would bolster the fight against cartels and Mexico's push to cinch a trade pact its export-driven economy desperately needs. García Harfuch has earned praise for helping deliver on Sheinbaum's vision of increased cooperation with the U.S. On the issue of security, he's "probably the best interlocutor on the Mexican side that I've seen in my experience, and I think the results are evident," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who served as Trump's Latin America envoy until late May and played a key role in the administration's security and migration work with attack sheds light on how aggressively he approaches the challenge. Hours after the shooting stopped, he defiantly promised to go on the offensive against the gangs that make up a vast criminal underworld responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and countless missing persons. As he recovered in the hospital, he even posed for a photo with both legs and one arm in casts, and a short-barreled assault rifle nearby. He's since won credit for helping Sheinbaum, then Mexico City's mayor, curb violence in the capital, and for following through on pledges to dismantle operations of some leaders of the cartel he said was behind the ambush. The exploits have made him popular enough to fuel speculation that García Harfuch may succeed Sheinbaum as president. They have also turned him even more private as he tries to protect loved ones from a battle those close to him say has become an obsession. The combination has earned the enigmatic minister a fitting nickname: many Mexicans call him Batman. 'This job is his life' Each weekday morning, García Harfuch joins his boss and other Cabinet officials for 6 a.m. security meetings. But it's appearances at Sheinbaum's daily press conferences - mostly during twice-monthly crime briefings - that have put him front-and-center in Mexican homes. Known for his chiseled good looks, García Harfuch talks like a cop trained to follow orders. His answers are short. He shares only what's necessary. He's polite but authoritative, and rarely smiles. It's nearly impossible to approach him at events. A security detail of tall, muscular body guards keeps everyone at a distance, their eyes darting constantly. It's even harder to spot him in public. "Omar doesn't go to restaurants, I've never seen him anywhere that isn't strictly related to his duties," said Ilan Katz, a lawyer who has known him for years. "For Omar, this job is his life." García Harfuch studied law and public administration before joining Mexico's federal police, which has since been disbanded. Prior to leading the sprawling Mexican capital's police force he oversaw investigations for the city's chief prosecutor. He comes from a long line of hard-nosed security officials. His grandfather, Marcelino García Barragán, was Mexico's defense minister in the 1960s, an especially repressive juncture of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's long rule. He's best known for overseeing a notorious Army sniper attack on student protesters in 1968, just before Mexico hosted the Olympics. Several hundred died and many more were father, Javier García Paniagua, oversaw a federal security agency during the 1970s, a period in which it faced accusations of violently targeting student and guerrilla groups. Notoriously guarded about his private life, García Harfuch declined multiple interview requests. He has described his father as tough but loving, but spoken little about his family or how its experiences shaped his approach to security. He speaks so infrequently about his daughters it's unclear how old they are, or how many he has. He was once rumored to be dating businesswoman Ninfa Salinas, daughter of Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, but hasn't revealed anything about a partner recently. García Harfuch's only Instagram posts that aren't related to work show him with his dogs: Azam, a Dutch Shepherd, and Drink, a Labrador. The devotion to work means he rarely sees family, even his mother María Sorté, a famous actress. "Obviously, I haven't been very present and, after what happened, less," he told an interviewer last year, referring to the ambush. "There's been a distance, also from my mom. You have to stay away." Expanded powers García Harfuch sought to capitalize on that success with a brief run to succeed Sheinbaum as mayor in 2024, but failed to win the nomination to represent Morena, the dominant party to which they both belong. He coasted to victory in a Senate race instead. Just a month after he took office, Sheinbaum made him security minister, tasking García Harfuch with taking their Mexico City approach national. The push has focused on bolstered intelligence gathering, and last month, Morena used congressional majorities to approve legislation that granted wider access to surveillance tools that previously only the Defense Ministry and Navy could utilize. That has given García Harfuch powers his predecessors lacked. But it has also drawn criticism from opponents who argue the law, which increases access to GPS and other civilian data, will allow the government to spy on law-abiding citizens and create a dangerous dragnet. "They're seeking to enable the federal government to access any Mexican citizen's photo, fingerprints, all your Amazon purchases, your live geolocation, if you stayed in a hotel, what time you leave your home, where you go," Senator Ricardo Anaya, an opposition leader, warned during legislative debate."It's the final nail in the coffin for privacy in Mexico and the establishment of a spy government," he added. Sheinbaum insists surveillance will require a court order. But the authorities have created internal challenges too. Her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, concentrated security powers inside an expanded Mexican military, which saw its budget grow alongside its institutional muscle. Sheinbaum's efforts to delegate more of that responsibility to García Harfuch risks setting off a power struggle inside the government, and Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo has at times appeared uncomfortable with his counterpart's expanded role, according to a person familiar with their Trejo didn't respond to a request for comment. Gun in hand He and García Harfuch have publicly worked last year, they traveled to the city of Culiacán shortly after a bitter civil war erupted among rival factions of the powerful Sinaloa violence ignited after the group's legendary co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada was abducted by a son of his longtime partner, jailed drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, and turned over to U.S. authorities. Fallout from the betrayal has taken the lives of hundreds. García Harfuch and Trevilla Trejo toured the streets of the city, a display meant to blunt the political risks the brutality posed early in Sheinbaum's tenure. Far from a desk cop, García Harfuch has earned respect from rank-and-file military and security forces by showing up, gun-in-hand, on the front lines, the person said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. He also details his blows against cartels in splashy social media posts that tout arrests and busted drug labs, with fentanyl a special focus. The task is massive. Mexico experienced more than 200,000 homicides under López Obrador, the bloodiest presidential term in the nation's recent history. AMLO, as the former leader is known, took a more passive approach that focused on what he described as root causes of crime, including poverty and youth unemployment. AMLO often clashed with the U.S., and in 2020, sharply limited U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations inside the country. Sheinbaum has opted for more conciliatory dealings, even while drawing a red line on U.S. military intervention in Mexican has turned García Harfuch into a frequent visitor to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials."President Sheinbaum and Secretary García Harfuch have maintained steady communication with their U.S. counterparts on security issues," according to a U.S. Department of State spokesperson who touted "especially robust" working-level coordination between military and law enforcement agencies. In February, Sheinbaum authorized the unusual transfer of senior Mexican drug traffickers to face U.S. charges in February. Another group was delivered to U.S. custody last week. Still, Mexico's volatile criminal scene could explode at any time. In May, motorcycle-mounted assassins gunned down two senior aides to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada in broad daylight, rocking the country. García Harfuch, who compulsively checks his phone at events, learned of the attack during a press conference with Sheinbaum. He calmly walked over to show her the news. Like so many other brazen crimes in Mexico, the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice. --------- -With assistance from Eric Martin. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
20 states and DC sue DOJ to stop immigration requirements on victim funds
A coalition of attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C., is asking a federal judge to stop the U.S. Department of Justice from withholding federal funds earmarked for crime victims if states don't cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts. The lawsuit filed Monday in Rhode Island federal court seeks to block the Justice Department from enforcing conditions that would cut funding to a state or subgrantee if it refuses to honor civil immigration enforcement requests, denies U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers access to facilities or fails to provide advance notice of release dates of individuals possibly wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of their immigration status. The lawsuit asks that the conditions be thrown out, arguing that the administration and the agency are overstepping their constitutional and administrative authority. The lawsuit also argues that the requirements are not permitted or outlined in the Victims of Crime Act, known as VOCA, and would interfere with policies created to ensure victims and witnesses report crimes without fear of deportation. 'These people did not ask for this status as a crime victim. They don't breakdown neatly across partisan lines, but they share one common trait, which is that they've suffered an unimaginable trauma,' New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said during a video news conference Monday, calling the administration's threat to withhold funds 'the most heinous act' he's seen in politics. The federal conditions were placed on VOCA funding, which provides more than a billion dollars annually to states for victims compensation programs and grants that fund victims assistance organizations. VOCA funding comes entirely from fines and penalties in federal court cases, not from tax dollars. Every state and territory has a victims compensation program that follows federal guidelines, but largely is set up under state law to provide financial help to crime victims, including medical expense reimbursement, paying for crime scene cleanup, counseling or helping with funeral costs for homicide victims. VOCA covers the cost of about 75% of state compensation program awards. Advocates and others argue that the system needs to protect victims regardless of their immigration status and ensure that reporting a crime does not lead to deportation threats. They also say that marginalized communities, such as newly arrived immigrants, are more likely to be crime targets. 'The federal government is attempting to use crime victim funds as a bargaining chip to force states into doing its bidding on immigration enforcement,' New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also joined the lawsuit, said in a statement Monday. 'These grants were created to help survivors heal and recover, and we will fight to ensure they continue to serve that purpose … We will not be bullied into abandoning any of our residents.' The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from a DOJ spokesperson Monday afternoon. President Donald Trump's administration has sought to withhold or pull back other federal funding or grant funding midstream, saying awardees and programs no longer agree with its priorities. In April, it canceled about $800 million in DOJ grants, some of which were awarded to victims service and survivor organizations. And in June, states filed a lawsuit over added requirements in Violence Against Women Act funding that mandated applicants agree not to promote 'gender ideology,' or run diversity, equity and inclusion programs or prioritize people in the country illegally. Several attorneys general said the VOCA conditions appear to be another way the administration is targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, though there is no clear definition of what a sanctuary state or city is. The Trump administration earlier this month released an updated list of states, cities and counties it considers sanctuary jurisdictions. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the August announcement that the department would 'continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.' As of Monday afternoon attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — all Democrats — had signed on to the lawsuit.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Mega-landlord settles with DOJ for Mass. price fixing claims
The U.S. Department of Justice and the landlord Greystar Management Services reached a deal to settle their legal fight over claims that the company used an algorithmic software to fix rental prices. Why it matters: Greystar, the nation's largest landlord, runs apartment complexes across Massachusetts, including in Brighton, Revere and East Boston. The big picture: The price fixing allegations come as the state grapples with a worsening housing crisis, partly due to limited housing supply. Catch up quick: Six states and the DOJ sued the company behind the rent-setting software, Texas-based RealPage, last year, accusing the company of illegal price fixing and monopolization. Massachusetts and Illinois then joined an amended version of the lawsuit that named South Carolina-based Greystar and five other landlords. They accused the six landlords of colluding to raise rents across their properties, relying on RealPage's software. State of play: Greystar agreed in the settlement to stop using any "anticompetitive algorithm" that sets rental prices using competitors' sensitive pricing data, per the settlement. The company also agreed to stop sharing its own sensitive information with competitors, stop attending RealPage's meetings convening competing landlords, accept a court-appointed monitor and cooperate with part of the federal legal fight against RealPage. By the numbers: A White House report estimates that renters whose landlords used RealPage's algorithm paid an additional $70 a month on average in 2023. For Boston-area renters, the cost was $79 a month, per the analysis. The report happened independently of the multi-state lawsuit. That lawsuit didn't specify which Greystar properties used the algorithm. What they're saying: Greystar didn't admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The company said in a statement that it "firmly believes that its use of RealPage's revenue management software complies with all applicable laws." "We entered into these settlements to make clear the government's interpretation of the law and to ensure we continue to do things the right way," the company wrote. Flashback: A 2022 ProPublica story revealed that RealPage worked with landlords to set rents nationwide in what legal experts said "may be artificially inflating rents and stifling competition." When the multi-state lawsuit began, RealPage refuted the allegations about its software with a six-page statement, saying landlords set their own prices and that RealPage "helps ensure that prospective residents have access to the best pricing available." One other landlord, Cortland, agreed to a settlement after being named in the amended lawsuit earlier this year.
