CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) \u2014 The new San Diego Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent is speaking out following a deadly suspected human smuggling event that occurred over the weekend off the Imperial Beach coast, emphasizing the dangerous disregard he says smugglers have for human life.<\/p>\n
Justin De La Torre has taken over for the San Diego sector, assuming leadership just days after the tragic maritime incident that claimed four lives.<\/p>\n
According to Border Patrol, the deadly event unfolded just after midnight Saturday when a boat capsized in high surf just south of the Imperial Beach Pier. Five people were rescued and taken to local hospitals, while four others died at the scene.<\/p>\n
“For me coming into this position, it just really highlights the dangers of smuggling,” De La Torre said.<\/p>\n
The survivors ranged in age from 30 to 89. De La Torre said his agents immediately responded to help with rescue efforts.<\/p>\n
“Went into the water and were able to flip the vessel back over and rescued an 89-year-old man who was trapped underneath the vessel,” De La Torre said.<\/p>\n
In his first official day on the job and his first on-camera interview since taking over in San Diego, De La Torre said Border Patrol will go after smugglers and anyone attempting to enter the country illegally.<\/p>\n
He explained that smugglers can charge people over $15,000 and, like on Saturday, take advantage of dangerous conditions to conduct their operations.<\/p>\n
“They try to smuggle in areas that are harder for us to operate in; they believe that they’ll have a higher chance of success,” De La Torre said.<\/p>\n
ABC 10News has covered several deadly maritime smuggling events this year alone. The new San Diego chief said that while maritime smuggling incidents are down about 20% this fiscal year, they continue to occur regularly.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had over 60 maritime smuggling events this fiscal year so far with 170 apprehensions,” De La Torre said.<\/p>\n
Although he admits some smugglers have gotten away, De La Torre emphasized that his agents maintain around-the-clock operations.<\/p>\n
“This is precisely why, because we don’t want to see people dying in the ocean, dying in the desert, and being exploited by the criminal organizations,” De La Torre said.<\/p>\n
A criminal investigation is underway regarding this weekend’s incident.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) \u2014 The new San Diego Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent is speaking out following…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,2330,1582,276,184476,184477,184478,184479,184480,3549,184481,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-386456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-border-patrol","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-chief-patrol-agent-san-diego","13":"tag-human-smuggling-event","14":"tag-justin-de-la-torre","15":"tag-maritime-smuggling","16":"tag-new-san-diego-border-patrol-chief","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-san-diego-border-patrol","19":"tag-sandiego","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115568077952508909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}