Boat captains plead guilty to smuggling operation that killed four

SAN DIEGO (CN) — Two Mexican boat captains whose attempts to illegally bring migrants into the United States resulted in the death of four people, including a brother and sister, pleaded guilty to human smuggling in federal court on Tuesday afternoon.

Jesus Ivan Rodriguez Leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga Luna admitted to participating in a human smuggling conspiracy that involved coordinating with people across Mexico and California to bring immigrants to the United States illegally with boats, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California announced.

The pair were charged with three counts of attempting to illegally transporting migrants resulting in death, which carries a possible death sentence or life in prison, along with a $250,000 fine. They were also charged with seven counts of illegally transporting migrants for financial gains. Each of those counts could result in ten years in prison with a three-year mandatory minimum and $250,000 fine.

The two men were working with a Mexico-based smuggling operation that provided them with a 20-foot-long, single-motor fishing boat that they piloted with 19 passengers on board, federal prosecutors said. The two men left from Popotla, Mexico, on the night of May 4, 2025, and traveled about 50 miles north to Del Mar, a coastal town in San Diego’s North County.

However, as the boat, overloaded with passengers and equipment, approached the Del Mar shoreline at about 7 a.m. on the morning of May 5, the motor failed, causing it to rotate and capsize. The boat threw its passengers overboard, about 200 yards from the shore, the Department of Justice said.

“Ultimately, three people were found deceased, four were hospitalized, and several others were unaccounted for,” the DOJ wrote in a criminal complaint.

The immigrants were reportedly told to remove their lifejackets as they approached the shore so that they could quickly transition to vehicles, but many of them were unable to swim.

Witnesses nearby reported a group of about 16 people attempting to illegally enter the country, the DOJ said.

“During a post-Miranda interview with HSI Special Agents, Rodriguez Leyva stated he was participating in the maritime smuggling event at the direction of a member of a Human Smuggling Organization (HSO) in Mexico,” the DOJ said.

Gorgonio Placido-Diaz and Marcos Lozada-Juarez, both Mexican nationals, as well as a 14-year-old boy from India drowned while attempting to reach shore that morning. They were found unresponsive near the shoreline and pronounced deceased.

A U.S. Coast Guard search for a fourth missing passenger was unsuccessful. The remains of the fourth passenger were later discovered on May 21 when a human foot was found on the beach of nearby Torrey Pines State Beach. DNA testing showed that the remains belonged to a 10-year-old girl who was the sister of the 14-year-old boy who drowned. Both of their parents were also on board the boat, the DOJ said.

According to prosecutors, each of the passengers were paying about $13,500 for transportation to the U.S.

Leyva and Luna reportedly both planned to meet other smuggling accomplices at the beach in the early morning of May 5 where the immigrants would be transported to different locations in different vehicles across the United States.

Several of the passengers from the capsized boat made it to the shore and were picked up by multiple different vehicles. In a separate criminal complaint, four other immigrants described fleeing from the capsized boat and being shuffled throughout different locations. Border Patrol agents ultimately intercepted them and arrested them in Chula Vista, just south of San Diego, that night.

Three others were sentenced for their role in the operation in a related criminal case. Melissa Jennelle Cota, Gustavo Lara and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal migrants.