Empty Panga Boat Found Floating at Carmel Beach, Homeland Security Investigating

Coast Guard crews discovered a panga boat floating near Monastery Beach Monday morning and now Homeland Security is involved. Panga boats are generally used to smuggle drugs and people into the country and more and more of them have been popping up all over the Central Coast, said investigators.

The Coast guard received a call about this most recent case Monday morning. The only thing that was left on the boat was a gas can, said the Coast Guard.

Search and rescue crews were unable to find anyone who may have been in the boat. There are several possibilities that the Coast Guard is looking into. One of them is the fact that the smugglers could have already off loaded the drugs somewhere else and pushed the boat back out to sea.

Because of the connection to possible drug smuggling, Homeland Security and the Coast Guard are investigating this case.