In Huntington Beach, Officials Find 2,600 Pounds Of Pot On One Smuggling Boat And 18 Life Vests On Another


It's fair to say there are probably quite a few pissed-off potheads in Huntington Beach.

Why? Well, because a ton — 2,600 pounds, to be exact — of fresh Mexican weed will never make into their pipes.
On Nov. 12, law enforcement officials found a boat filled with about $1 million worth of weed along Pacific Coast Highway between Goldenwest and Seapoint streets, according to an Orange County Register story. 

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And, weed isn't the only thing being smuggled into Surf City. On Nov. 4, officials found another boat in the area and it had 18 life vests on it. Officials, therefore, assume it was used to smuggle people into the U.S. 

While no arrests have been made in the Huntington Beach cases, the Register reports, officials did arrest 10 people on charges of suspected maritime human smuggling in Seal Beach last week. 
These recent incidents are snapshots of an ongoing trend. In July, a boat carrying 14 suspected undocumented immigrants capsized near Crystal Cove State Park. 
Claude Arnold, a special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security investigations, told the Weekly that officials see evidence of at least two maritime smuggling attempts per week along the shoreline between northern Orange County and Santa Barbara. 
Arnold attributes the increased frequency of maritime smuggling to a “tightening of the ports and in between the ports with Border Patrol.”

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