People Smugglers Face Death Penalty in Deadly Migrant Boat Capsizing

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wants people smugglers put to the state sword…

Boat landings sure ain’t new on the sands of monied beach towns from Malibu through Laguna and down to San Diego.

Surfline cams often capture the inspired sight of migrants beaching their panga, those familiar flat-bottomed skiffs that originally designed by Yamaha for a World Bank project back in 1970 and named after the panga fish and disappearing into the hills for new lives etc.

The latest, two nights ago, wasn’t so pretty.

A panga overloaded with migrants capsized off Torrey Pines State Beach, San Diego, killing three people, including a 14-year-old Indian boy, and leaving his 10-year-old sister missing, presumed dead.

The tragedy, which unfolded fifty clicks north of the US-Mex border, has led to federal charges against two alleged people smugglers, with prosecutors and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem seeking the death penalty—a rare and severe measure in human trafficking cases.

The vessel, carrying 16 to 18 passengers, overturned at six-thirts, spilling migrants into the 63-degree water. The San Diego County Medical Examiner identified the deceased as the Indian boy and two Mexican nationals, an 18-year-old and another man. Four survivors, including the boy’s parents—the father now in a coma—and a 16-year-old Mexican girl, were hospitalized.

Eight of nine initially missing migrants were later located in Chula Vista, 50 clicks away. Hikers, a doctor, and lifeguards attempted CPR on the shore, but rough seas thwarted rescue efforts. The US Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and local agencies quit searching for survivors late Monday.

Julio Cesar Zuniga Luna and Jesus Juan Rodriguez Leyva, arrested at the scene, face charges of smuggling aliens for financial gain and causing death, which carry a maximum penalty of death under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Zuniga admitted expecting $3,000 for the operation, while Rodriguez received 4,000 pesos (~$200) for expenses.

Three others—Melissa Jennelle Cota, Gustavo Lara, and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso—face charges for transporting migrants.

Noem called the smugglers’ actions “callous,” emphasizing a hardline stance as maritime smuggling rises, with 287 incidents in San Diego County since October.

How you feel about icing crooks? I think, excellent in theory, at least for premeditated murder and kid killers, but very  flawed in practice.

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39 Comments
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ricmatic

shut the fuck up fatso

Preston

Maybe Noem will play dress up again and put her sexy Grim Reaper outfit on and handle the executions herself?

Barrelled

For better or worse, they have a constitutional law against that type of bush thinking in the U.S. It’s called the 8th Amendment and it bans “cruel and unusual punishment”.

Working Class Hero

Tragic. The desperation to send it like that for the opportunity at a better life. The desperation to risk lives for a meager $3k. It’s all really sad.

LONGBEACH4417

It’s been 4 months since the palisades fires…are homeowners allowed to start rebuilding yet?

Barnycle

Why would they be allowed? If you gave them permits to begin rebuilding and they all developed cancer in 15 years then they would sue the state into oblivion. Rebuilding can only begin again when it’s safe. It’s not convenient, but it is what it is. California ain’t the south

LONGBEACH4417

Damn. To all affected hang in there. Lost my home to sandy, totally different beast, but we were allowed in immediately. Pallisades is a big area but let’s hope they get a move on. Sucks ass paying rent and mortgage nearly killed my marriage. No stress like financial stress.

Sean Connery

Who would want to be the first one to rebuild? So you can move in and listen to construction noise everyday for the next decade?

Sean Connery

Oh and the dust… oohhh man the dust.

Barrelled

They already issued some permits but you are correct, living around construction sucks. There are still Thomas Fire projects going in Ventura and that fire was in 2017.

Sean Connery

Yeah I heard they are expediting permits if you are building like for like.

Barrelled

That is exactly what they did in Ventura and Santa Barbara in the past. Same footprint, same walls, same sq ft, same everything and you get an expedited permit. Problem is that very few people don’t want to change anything unless they just built the house.

ricmatic

they choose your faucets, first world problem, but they got shit taste

ricmatic

My kids best mate’s house is the only one standing for a mile. Cyanid in the all the drywall. Tear down.

Barrelled

It already started. Google is a wonderful resource.

LONGBEACH4417

Yet some commenters are saying it’s a no go. Guess you live there huh? Good on ya hope you get in soon.

Barnycle

You could cut off their limbs, burn their stumps, torture their torsos and then hang them, and it still wouldn’t be a deterrent. The only deterrent is a high likelihood of being caught and facing some consequence.

People who break the law, whether it be drinking and driving or holding up a liquor store, play a subconscious game in their brain about the likelihood of getting caught. Almost nobody breaks a law where there’s a high likelihood of being caught and punished.

no need to raise the penalty of breaking this law. Just need to raise the likelihood of having to pay the current penalty, which is enough of a deterrent when enforced.

My little country never had drink-driving laws. Everyone drove drunk after every event. Laws were passed. Everyone still drove drunk. Breathalysers were obtained and police hit the roads putting lawbreakers in the slammer until they could see a judge. All of a sudden people are carpooling, hiring taxis and drinking moderately.

At times, when the police go months or years without charging people then, the drink driving starts right back up. People, whatever the crime, need to think that they may get caught if they are to be deterred. No mexican kid wants to spend even 3 years in a federal prison, so that alone is enough of a deterrent if they believe that’s what they’re likely facing.

To think that these people are sneaking past billions of dollars of military equipment and facilities. People having been taking this seriously at all.

Capt Sensible

Bring it on , I reckon it would have a instant impact.

Barton Lins

I’m sure Com Turren has an opinion and a solution for all this.

Derek Hynd's Missing Fins

A lot of people do. However, most voters are too dumb or impatient, and most politicians too bought out and too busy posturing, to work towards legitimate solutions.

Lemon Next to the Pie

Possibly Barton Lynch too.

ValiantScorn

The real story here, is what really happened. You think they just drive boats up our coast right past our base without detection? LoL. I love how easy a story is formed for public consumption these days. Best advice, is just stay in your dump.

ValiantScorn

Everybody needs a job….
If you don’t want your land colonized, do something about it, or you welcomed it!

Sellme fitzgobbins

Not sure if you are allowed to use the term Indian boy anymore ?
Native American I think is more pc

ValiantScorn

Actual Kashmir Indians. We aren’t “Indians”, we’re Native American. Bathe, and all

Chief Hot stuff

Send that message!!

Chief Hot stuff

From the river to the sea
trans for gaza standup,
to pee

Mike

I hope you live somewhere other than the US.
BTW Christians haven’t run the show for a lifetime.

Beef & Beer

The real criminals here are the parents of both Julio Cesar Zuniga Luna and Jesus Juan Rodriguez Leyva for giving their children excessively long and complicated names.

Or did they have a premonition that someday their children would come to the attention of the U.S.A. court system, and the length of their names would give them time to escape custody whilst being read aloud in front of a snoozing judge ?

Plus the parents of Hey Soos should be held doubly responsible for naming their son after a Jewish trouble maker (that the Romans would accidentally popularise through a famous court case) and then mispronouncing it.

It wouldn’t be an issue if more parents gave their children simple names like Ted Bundy, Jim Jones, John Gacy or Chad Schmidt etc…

ValiantScorn

4 word names= cousin phukin

"Helmets... Period."

No one in California faces the death penalty

Happy Camper

…but because it involves illegal immigration and smuggling across international borders, it becomes federal jurisdiction.

"Helmets... Period."

jurisdiction or not, some random judge will tell them they can’t do anything

ValiantScorn

Take him for a boat ride!

Rich Marx

There are lots of ways to stymie Trump in Courts but this is a pretty clear and textbook exercise of federal law enforcement power.

ValiantScorn

This would be Federal…

Mapski

What’s her take on puppy killers?

Barnycle

That’s all part of farming, apparently. Just bury the puppy after thou puts in a slug in it. Or else that’s not being very Christian.

Sean Connery

A Christian is a women who feels repentance on Sunday for what she did on Saturday and is going to do on Monday. – Thomas Ybarra


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