The captains of a smuggling boat that capsized off the coast of California last year, killing three people, have been sentenced to federal prison.
SAN DIEGO– The captains of a boat that capsized off the coast of California last year while smuggling migrants from Mexico, killing three people, were sentenced to federal prison Thursday.
Jorge Armando Preciado-Vasquez, 30, and Alexis Martinez-Preciado, 20, each received more than four years in prison, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
The men, both residents of Mexico, were convicted of smuggling.
Authorities said they were operating a boat carrying seven adults and a child over Thanksgiving weekend in 2022 when it capsized near Imperial Beach, several miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
A 39-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man from Mexico drowned along with an unidentified young woman from Guatemala, authorities said.
Hundreds of maritime smuggling operations take place off the coast of California every year. Attempts to smuggle migrants from Mexico into the US by land and sea have claimed countless lives.
In March, eight people were killed when two boats capsized off the coast of San Diego.
In July, a Mexican man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for coordinating a smuggling operation that left 13 people dead when their overloaded SUV was struck by a big oil rig near Holtville after crossing the border into California two years ago.
And earlier this month, eight people died when the driver of a car suspected of transporting smuggled migrants fled police and crashed into an oncoming car on a South Texas highway.