Border Patrol investigating after boat carrying 11 passengers washes up in Huntington Beach

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are investigating an incident that occurred in Huntington Beach Monday night, when a vessel carrying 11 passengers washed ashore near Lifeguard Tower 14, resulting in the detention of all on board.

The incident took place shortly before 9:30 p.m. on a portion of the beach near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 17th Street, according to Jennifer Carey, public affairs manager for the city.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jaime Ruiz confirmed Tuesday a 23-foot pleasure craft carrying two adult Mexican women and nine adult men had beached off the coast of Huntington Beach. By the time Customs and Border Protection officers and Air and Marine Operations agents responded to the scene, city police had detained six subjects from the vessel.

After witnesses stated they’d seen 11 people exit the boat, officers and agents searched the area and located an additional five individuals, Ruiz explained. All passengers were determined to have been unlawfully present in the United States and were taken into custody without incident.

Carey said responders with the Huntington Beach Fire Department had checked the status of the passengers and found that no injuries were sustained during passage, Carey confirmed Tuesday. AMO agents seized the boat.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations’ Los Angeles Border Enforcement Security Taskforce is overseeing the investigation into Monday’s incident. Ruiz said the Customs and Border Protection and Air and Marine Operations, working in partnership as part of a Regional Coordinating Mechanism, work to identify, intercept and disrupt criminal organizations operating in Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties.

Such smuggling events often use pleasure crafts and repurposed Mexican fishing vessels, known as “pangas,” to smuggle narcotics and migrants into the area, Ruiz added.

Reports of beached vessels are not uncommon in Orange County — a panga boat carrying 14 passengers from Mexico was intercepted at Laguna Beach’s Agate Street Beach last year on May 18. A similar sighting was reported in Newport Beach three days earlier, while a third incident was recorded May 2.

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