Two dozen people were arrested Tuesday as part of a suspected human smuggling operation near Swami's Beach, officials said.
At about 5:20 a.m., sheriff's department deputies and Border Patrol agents got word of several people who had just come ashore, the North County Times reported. Investigators located 16 men and six woman, all believed to be Mexican residents who had entered California illegally.
The boat investigators believe the men and women arrived in was gone by the time law enforcement arrived, but teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection soon stopped a southbound 30-foot Panga boat off the coast of Point Loma, officials said, and arrested the two men riding in the boat.
