5 Charged After Deadly Migrant Boat Incident in California

Five Mexican citizens were arrested and accused after a boat that transports migrants overturned near San Diego and killed at least three people, the United States Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of California announced on Tuesday.

The dead included a 14 -year -old boy from India, who was on the ship with their parents and their sister, authorities said. The father is in a coma, and the mother is also hospitalized, while her 10 -year -old sister is still missing and presumed dead, according to the United States prosecutor’s office.

The boat, which exceeded Monday, was a panga, a guy or an open container used to transport people or drugs.

The authorities said they arrested Jesús Ivan Rodríguez-Lawva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, Monday in Torrey Pines State Beach, just north or San Diego. According to the United States prosecutor’s office, both have been accused of bringing foreigners that results in death, which has a maximum death or life imprisonment and a fine of $ 250,000, and bringing foreigners to obtain financial profits.

Later that night, the authorities arrested Melissa Jennelle Cota, 33, Gustavo Lara, 32, and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31. They have accused the transport of illegal aliens, said the Office of the United States prosecutor. If it is guilty, they face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 500,000.

None of the defendants had lawyers, and the contacts were not provided in the judicial records on Tuesday night.

“The drowned deaths of these children are a reminder of heartbreak of how little human traffic traffic on the costs of their mortal business,” said Adam Gordon, the US prosecutor of the Southern District of California, in a statement.

The starting point of the boat and where it was directed were not announced immediately. Eight of the nine migrants who were initially not counted after the boat overturned in the leg, the authorities said. The details about the other passengers were not available.