SAN DIEGO — Authorities in San Diego stopped a boat at sea and detained 15 Mexican nationals who were being smuggled into the United States on Saturday, including a convicted rapist, a Border Patrol official said Tuesday.
The Coast Guard stopped the personal craft-style boat about 2:45 p.m. Pacific time and towed it to a Mission Bay lifeguard station. There, Border Patrol agents questioned the group onboard — four women and 11 men — and determined they were in the U.S. illegally, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jeff Stephenson said.
He said everyone in the group with the exception of one of them who was operating the boat had been hiding in the cabin.
They were taken to a Border Patrol station where agents checked for any criminal records. They discovered that one of the men is a convicted rapist who served three years in prison, Stephenson said.
The agents referred the 48-year-old man's case to the U.S. attorney's office for possible prosecution on allegations that he returned the U.S. after being deported, Stephenson said.
The 14 others in the group were returned to Mexico.
