SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Two boat captains pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday after four migrants died off the coast of San Diego last year in an attempted smuggling case.
On the evening of May 4, 2025, the two men, Jesus Ivan Rodriguez Leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga Luna, piloted a 20-foot panga filled with 19 migrants on board from Popotla, Mexico, to the U.S.
As the panga approached the Del Mar shoreline on May 5, the Department of Justice said the motor failed, causing the boat full of people to capsize about 200 yards from the coast. Many were unable to swim, and four migrants on the vessel drowned…