San Diego : Fishing Boat Seized as Part of Drug Crackdown

The U.S. Coast Guard seized a 45-foot fishing boat off the coast of San Diego Wednesday after finding a small quantity of illegal drugs on board, authorities said.

The boat, the commercial gill netter Lococo Brothers, was the third seized in a week off the Southern California shore under the federal “zero tolerance” drug crackdown.

A Coast Guard boarding team operating off a Navy ship found the drugs shortly before 10 a.m. during a random inspection of the boat, which was about 60 miles west-southwest of San Diego, according to Petty Officer Dennis Hall, a Coast Guard spokesman in Long Beach.

Two men were aboard the boat, but their names, as well as a description of the drugs, were not available. The boat was being escorted into the San Diego Harbor Police facility at Shelter Island late Wednesday, where U.S. Customs Service inspectors will conduct an investigation, Hall said.

Last week the Coast Guard seized a 40-foot sailboat moored in San Diego Harbor and a 55-foot commercial fishing boat 75 miles west of San Diego after finding small amounts of marijuana on board.

Under the 6-week-old zero tolerance program, the Coast Guard seizes boats found to be carrying even minuscule amounts of drugs and turns them over to the Customs Service for formal forfeiture procedures.