Coast Guard Station South Padre Island 33-Foot Special Purpose Craft-Law Enforcement file photo by PA2 Adam Eggers.
The Coast Guard Cutter Harold Miller crew, in coordination with Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi and Coast Guard Station South Padre Island, located and stopped two lanchas with a total of nine Mexican fishermen engaged in illegal fishing.
Coast Guard personnel interdicted two lancha boats with high flyers, GPS devices, radios, fishing gear, sharks and 650 pounds of red snapper on board. Coast Guard crews detained the Mexican fishermen and transferred them to border enforcement agents for processing.
A lancha is a fishing boat used by Mexican fishermen that is approximately 20-30 feet long with a slender profile, having one outboard motor, and is capable of traveling at 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 in the Gulf of Mexico.
If you witness suspicious activity or illegal fishing in state waters (out to 9 miles offshore), please contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s “Operation Game Thief” at 1-800-792-GAME (4263). For all suspicious activity or illegal fishing occurring in federal waters (out to 200 miles offshore), please contact the U.S. Coast Guard at 361-939-0450.
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