Coast Guard Nabs Panga Boat near San Miguel Island
Three Men Arrested; 35 Big Bundles of Marijuana Seized
A U.S. Coast Guard boarding team arrested three men Wednesday morning in a panga boat carrying hundreds of pounds of marijuana stopped north of San Miguel Island. Thirty-five bundles of weed, the largest weighing around 80 pounds, were seized and the men taken into custody, said Petty Officer Adam Eggers. The men’s identities have not been released.
The boat was first spotted at 7:45 a.m. by a Customs and Border Patrol plane, which tracked the 30- to 40-foot vessel heading north up the coast. A Coast Guard helicopter was launched from Los Angeles soon after and was hovering over the panga by 10 a.m. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo law enforcement agencies, as well as the California Highway Patrol, were alerted in case the boat made a run for shore before Coast Guard boats could arrive on the scene.
