The U.S. Coast Guard says it intercepted a panga boat carrying more than 21 migrants Wednesday more than 70 miles offshore of the Southern California Coast, with one unresponsive man on board who later died.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach Coast Guard division received a report around noon Wednesday from a community member that a boat suspected of illegally smuggling people was traveling 14 miles west of San Clemente Island, according to a release issued Friday by the U.S. Coast Guard.
There was one minor male aboard the boat. The boat’s origin of departure is unclear at this time, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.
Coast Guard crews and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials stopped the vessel and identified 21 individuals the agencies suspect of entered the country illegally.
During the assessment, Coast Guard responders said they found a 56-year-old man unresponsive and began CPR before he was airlifted and transported to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood. Hospital staff managed to restore the man’s pulse, according to the Coast Guard, but he was later pronounced dead.
The remaining 20 individuals were detained and transferred into custody by U.S. Border Patrol personnel.
San Clemente Island, which is part of California’s Channel Islands, is roughly 55 miles south of Long Beach.
