CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard has seized a Mexican fishing boat and detained its five crewmembers in a poaching investigation off the Gulf Coast waters of South Texas.
Coast Guard officials say an agency crew spotted the 25-to-30-foot boat illegally fishing on Thursday.
The Coast Guard says the men on the boat acknowledged they had been fishing illegally. The boat, called a “lancha” in Spanish, is capable of travelling at speeds exceeding 30 mph and is often used to fish illegally in the United States’ exclusive economic zone near the U.S.-Mexico border in the Gulf of Mexico.
The boat’s crew was detained and transferred to border enforcement agents for return to Mexico. The boat and its fishing gear were seized.
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