War on smugglers no pleasure cruise

Federal agents patrol county's coastal waters
By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 11, 2008

The newest battleground between Mexican smugglers and federal agents isn't on the ground. It's on the water.

Frustrated by anti-smuggling measures along the U.S.-Mexico border, smugglers increasingly are running up the Pacific coast from Baja California to San Diego County, delivering their cargoes of illegal immigrants, and sometimes narcotics, by the boatload.

In some ways, it's a throwback to America's Prohibition era, when “rumrunners” tried to outwit or outrun Coast Guard patrols to smuggle in liquor.

“We believe these are some of the same smuggling organizations that have been out there (along the land border),” said Michael Carney, deputy special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.

“With the land border tightening up, they're now looking to the marine environment.”