The captain who crashed his boat into a San Diego reef last year, killing three of the 32 smuggled migrants aboard, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

Antonio Hurtado, 40, pleaded guilty in April to felony charges of attempted human smuggling resulting in death and attempted human smuggling for financial gain relating to each of the three migrants who died.

“Thirty-two passengers put their savings and their lives in this defendant’s hands. His reckless behavior and egregious failure to seek assistance put every one of them at serious risk and caused the tragic loss of three lives,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement.

“This sentence recognizes the serious nature of these crimes and stands as a stern warning to smugglers: your profit-driven schemes will fail; we will prosecute you for your crimes; and we will obtain justice for your victims.”

Smugglers delivered the undocumented migrants, including three unaccompanied minors, from Puerto Neuvo, Baja California, Mexico, to Hurtado near the Corando Islands, where he was waiting with his boat, the Salty Lady, according to prosecutors.

Each of the passengers had paid between $15,000 and $18,000 to be smuggled into the United States.

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Overnight on May 1, 2021, into May 2, piloting the boat through pouring rain and rough sees, Hurtado “repeatedly used controlled substances and even lost consciousness for over an hour before passengers were finally able to wake him,” witnesses told prosecutors.

When the engine began failing, Hurtado refused to call the U.S. Coast Guard for help and instead let the boat drift toward shore where it eventually ran into land near Point Loma.

Instead of staying with the Salty Lady, Hurtado jumped overboard and swam to shore, leaving his passengers helpless.

Eventually, the pounding surf tore the boat apart and the passengers were thrown into the water. Park rangers at Cabrillo National Park, on the cliff above the rocks, spotted the boat and the migrants and called the Coast Guard.

Three passengers, 29-year-old Victor Perez-Degollado, 41-year-old Maria Eugenia Chavez Segovia and 35-year-old Maricela Hernandez Sanchez, sustained blunt force trauma and drowned.

Identified by witnesses as the pilot, Hurtado was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital to detox.

“Human smugglers have no respect for human life, as is demonstrated by this defendant,” Chad Plantz, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations San Diego, said in a statement. “The deaths in this investigation could have been prevented had the defendant not treated these victims like dispensable cargo; HSI will not tolerate transnational criminal organizations attempting to further their multi-billion dollar enterprise in San Diego.”



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