5/13/2008: Security News Brief: Restricted by Land, now Illegals and
Smugglers come by Boat:

There are fears, among residents of Del Mar California, what one may
find paddling out to sea. A body? An abandoned boat or its wreckage?
Or smugglers, possibly armed?

Already, five boats belonging to smugglers of drugs or illegal
immigrants have been found beached or wrecked by reefs in the past six
months - a sign that smuggling by sea is the latest route to subvert
the new border fence and toughened frontier.

While waterborne journeys have been common on the Atlantic with Cuban
or Haitian migrants, the Pacific passage is unusual because it's
occurring year-round now, not just confined to the warm months when
smugglers' bigger boats hide in plain sight amid U.S. maritime
traffic, federal officials say.

Equally troublesome is how smugglers are now using disposable,
sometimes barely seaworthy boats, such as a 26-foot watercraft called
a panga that held 17 people and was intercepted recently.