Body Washes Ashore In San Diego After Botched Human-Smuggling Attempt

SAN DIEGO, CA — For the second time in as many days, the body of a man believed to have died in a failed maritime human-smuggling attempt washed ashore Monday in Ocean Beach.

A beachgoer walking a dog spotted the body in shallow water on a stretch of shoreline off the 5100 block of Voltaire Street about 10 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Officials suspect the dead man, whose name was not immediately available, had been aboard a small fishing boat that capsized in the ocean off the coast of San Diego late Saturday night, SDFRD spokesman Jose Ysea said.

Emergency crews rescued two men from the sea following the accident, Ysea said. Another was able to make it to shore on his own, and a fourth, 37- year-old Mexican national Eleobardo Garcia Lopez, was found dead on the beach early Sunday.

Paramedics took the survivors to UCSD Medical Center, where they were hospitalized in stable condition for treatment of possible hypothermia or other environmental exposure-related ailments they may have suffered.

The men were believed to have been part of a attempt to sneak undocumented migrants into the United States by boat. It remained unclear Monday if all those who had been aboard the vessel were accounted for, Ysea said.

— City News Service