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U.S. Coast Guard crews seized two Mexican lanchas illegally fishing in federal waters off South Texas last week, officials report.
The Coast Guard Cutter Harold Miller crew, in coordination with a Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi air crew, located and stopped two lanchas with a total of eight Mexican fishermen engaged in illegal fishing Thursday.
The illegal craft were equipped with high flyers (vertical poles used to mark long line nets), GPS devices, radios and fishing gear on board.
One lancha was found to have 400 pounds of red snapper on board.
Coast Guard crews detained the Mexican fishermen and transferred them to border enforcement agents for processing and return to Mexico.
“Thanks to the unwavering teamwork and coordination between our air crews and the Harold Miller crew, we were able to halt two illegal fishing vessels from further impacting our nation’s critical marine resources,” said Lt. Alexis Williams, command duty officer, Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi.
Lanchas are open boats 20 to 30 feet long with an outboard motor and are capable of speeds exceeding 30 mph. Lanchas are frequently used to transport illegal narcotics to the U.S. and illegally fish in the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone near the U.S.-Mexico border.
