A 25-foot panga and 200 pounds of marijuana washed up on a Palos Verdes beach. One bale of marijuana was floating in the water while another was found on the rocky shore between the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and the Terranea Resort.
The panga was discovered by a hiker who notified authorities around 10:30 am on Friday. The skiff was covered with a gray plastic cover.
This comes at a time when the Mexican Navy announced they were stepping up their efforts to stop the flow of drugs in to the United States by stopping and boarding more boats in Mexican waters.
Along with the bales of pot, there were 18 fuel canisters and yellow rain coats strewn along the beach. Sheriffs had the boat towed to Marina del Rey where it will be examined.
The Westerly out of Long Beach Sportfishing was pulling up to anchor off Point Vicente at 3 pm when a Coast Guard vessel approached. The menacing boat with a gun in her bow pulled up to ask Captain John Ackley if had been around at 8 am. Ackley said no and anchored up in hopes of a seabass. With his binoculars, he could see a sea of federal and local agents combing the rocky beach for clues and evidence.
A similar incident occurred on the Palos Verdes Peninsula on May 13 when a 25-foot panga was found abandoned at Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes Estates. Deputies said the boat was not registered in the United States, and the life jackets and other materials were in Spanish leading investigators to believe the boat arrived from Mexico.
Same thing occurred in May at Catalina Island when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies seized 1,500 pounds of marijuana at Little Harbor. A man was spotted near plastic-wrapped bales on the backside of Catalina, where 31 bales were later seized.
As long as there is an appetite for drugs on this side of the border, one has to surmise that the pangas will keep coming.
Fishing pangas above were photographed in Popotla, Baja California Norte and are similar to the panga discovered near Point Vicente on Friday. Photo credit- Philip Friedman Outdoors
I threw all that stuff in the trash !!! Wonder how it got to that boat !!! LOL !
Posted by: Vince A | 07/02/2011 at 04:46 PM
I had a good laugh on Vince's comment. Well, Legalization of marijuana has always been a big debate between those who are in favor and those who disagrees. But based on my observation, I think in America alone most of them seemed obsessed with the legalization of marijuana.
Posted by: Pot | 07/08/2011 at 12:20 AM