AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. Coast Guard arrested 23 Mexican fishermen after seizing 900 pounds of illegally caught fish off the coast of Texas Sunday.
Officials say that crews from the Coast Guard's South Padre Island Station, the Coast Guard Cutter vessel Edgar Culbertson and aircrews from the Coast Guard Air Station in Corpus Christi intercepted five lanchas in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico near Southern Texas. Lanchas are small fishing boats that the Coast Guard says are frequently used to transport illegal drugs to the U.S. and illegally fish in Gulf of Mexico waters exclusive to the U.S.
Officials discovered that the boats had been hauling 900 pounds of red snapper and shark that had been illegally caught in an area north of the Maritime Boundary Line.
Crews detained the fishermen, brought them ashore and transferred them to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“Our Coast Guard crews remain committed to eliminating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in our nation's sovereign waters,” said Lt. Shane Gunderson, the commanding officer for Coast Guard Station South Padre Island. “Through highly coordinated response efforts with our federal and state partners, we will continue to combat this environmental and economic threat.”