Seized Pangas

[Jon McMullen]

https://lbpost.com/news/panga-boat-peni ... mmigration

Anyone know what they do with these pangas after they are seized / ditched?

I always figured there would be a deal to be had on these types of boats. Some of the ones running drugs that get ditched look like pretty nice set ups.

[Calwaterman]

from what i have heard. They destroy them , both the hull and the engine. Sad I have seen many on the shoreline. if adrift you can take possession of an abandoned vessel . just hope its empty of contraband

[NaClAddict]

You ever seen “No Country For Old Men”? I don’t want anyone knocking at my door unless I know them.

[chris oak]

Wow that's crazy, I had just texted Jeff chamberlain about that panga three days ago. I was driving home from work and some guy was towing it, must have been LEO. The panga was MASSIVE by far the fattest one I've seen with a weird rear console, it's hard to see how big it was but it was a triple axle towing it. Jeff said it was probably a stolen mexican panga, I thought it was a refurbished net boat.

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Usually the leo division takes the motor and then scraps the hull. There was one case where a guy found on in ventura or thereabouts and claimed all the paperwork to get it. LEO said no it was theirs, guy got a lawyer and did everything by the books. In the end the LEO division took the motors off them (newer yamaha or honda four strokes) and gave him the hull, he was pissed.

[Lobzila]

When I worked on Camp Pendelton, we used to share a dock with the go-fast homeland security boats. They would bring one in every couple of weeks. From what I saw of those boats, you would not want one. All of them were at the tail end of there lives and held together by duct tape and a prayer. Think panga you saw in Baja, only not good for fishing or cruising anymore and make one last run up north to drop people off. To get them to stop, most of the times, the LEO's would shoot a shotgun slug in the motor to shut it down. I used to joke with them about that. Nice motor until you shot out the power head. All covered in shit or piss and puke as they have been hauling 10+ people in on a night time 90 mile boat ride.
Trust me, you would not want one. Also talked to the guy who had the contract to destroy them. He told me he rarely gets any parts out of them.

[chris oak]

Pretty wild, about two days later I was pulling out of work and saw this second one at the launch ramp. Almost identical in size but this one had two motors. I'll attach a photo.

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I thought most of these never made it to sale but there's a guy on bloodydecks selling one right now with 2 brand new yamaha 4 strokes. Evidently he was contacted by LEO to remove this off a beach, instead of paying him they said he could keep the boat and motors. He sold one already, but has two other motors he's selling on this panga. I guess in this case, the motors aren't stolen, they were bought by the cartel and are expendable as they knew they would have to dump the boat once it hit california and they made the drug transfer. https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/35ft-panga-boat-for-sale-with-two-yamaha-300hp.763400/

I'll tell you, a few years ago when it got really bad locally I was super sketchy about taking my boat out and diving at night along the coast. Mainly because I was thinking it would be super easy for smugglers to jump ship if their boat was having problems.