Mexican smugglers use Pacific as new route

Mexican smugglers trying to find new routes into the United States are turning increasingly to the Pacific Ocean for a short sail to the California coast, where they drop off illegal immigrants and marijuana, U.S. officials say. The water route has become particularly popular in the past year.

"We've seen a huge spike in smuggling by water," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Diego, California. "It's become very, very risky and difficult to cross by land. Smugglers try to jump where they think we're not looking."

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Farris, the top-ranking Coast Guard official at the Port of San Diego, said interdictions of human cargo on the Pacific have doubled since last year. Drug busts -- all marijuana -- are even higher, he said. "Drug interdictions are six times above what they were last year.".

So far this year, he said, authorities have confiscated 60,000 pounds of marijuana and caught 400 people trying to sneak into the United States. The water route has become popular, because "the land border has been so severely closed by Customs and border agents."