SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — For a little more than a year, Border Patrol agents have been working in San Diego's waters, expanding their patrols to the San Diego Bay, with the addition of the Border Patrol Marine Unit here in San Diego, modeled after other units around the country.
Frank Salling is an Assistant Chief Patrol Agent and he's the man in charge of the marine unit. According to Border Patrol, maritime smuggling has been going up in the last several years.
"When you compare this fiscal year from the previous year, we're up 82% in events and up 44% in apprehensions," says Salling.
During COVID, agents say smugglers started to use pleasure crafts to avoid border crossings, attempting to blend in with the boating community to avoid getting caught.
The marine unit focuses its work on in-shore waters like marinas and bays, not just in San Diego County but also up the coast in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The marine unit also has the authority to patrol the entire California coastline, up to the border with Oregon should they be needed.
Now, the marine unit is adding yet another resource, K-9s that can help agents find drugs and people. The addition of the dogs is still in its early stages as agents work to make them comfortable at sea.
"The biggest difference is that acclamation process, so it's kind of a four-step process, we'll initially bring the dog up on the dock and let it get used to that congested marine environment," explains Salling.
The addition of dogs comes at the same time that Border Patrol is launching several campaigns attempting to discourage people from trusting smugglers, while also raising awareness about the dangers of the drugs that criminal organizations try to bring in, most recently an increase in fentanyl.
Patricia McGurk-Daniel, the Deputy Chief Patrol Agent for the entire San Diego Sector, says smugglers are attempting to bring in what they call M30, little blue pills, that have increasing amounts of fentanyl. Pills she says can be deadly.
"Someone picks one up you can ingest it and you can die immediately because you won't have the tolerance for that, just a little bit of fentanyl, like a grain of sand can kill you," explains McGurk-Daniel.
Agents also want the message about smugglers to be clear, they don't care.
"Whether you're smuggling for them or you're the commodity being smuggled, you're just a dollar sign, if you lose your life or you get sent to prison, they don't care they're just going to recruit somebody else," says McGurk-Daniel.
To date, the marine unit hasn't found narcotics in San Diego bay, but credits that to their presence over the last year, and says smugglers are instead heading further up the coast.
