<p>SAN DIEGO — A man alleged to have captained a boat that fell apart and killed three people off the San Diego coast has been indicted by a federal grand jury in what authorities said Wednesday was a growing number of deaths in migrant smuggling attempts along California’s border with Mexico.</p>
<p>Antonio Hurtado pleaded not guilty Tuesday to smuggling charges, weeks after he was arrested in the May 2 wreck when a cabin cruiser packed with 33 people smashed on the rocky shore of San Diego’s Point Loma peninsula.</p>
<p>Hurtado’s age and citizenship were not disclosed in court filings but authorities have said the captain was a U.S. citizen. His attorney, Melissa Bobrow, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Exactly two months earlier, 13 Mexican and Guatemalan citizens in an overloaded SUV were killed when struck by a tractor-trailer in the remote desert community of Holtville.</p>
<p>Authorities say 25 migrants died in smuggling attempts on California’s border with Mexico from October through April, compared to 29 for the preceding 12-month period. Representatives of several law enforcement agencies pleaded with migrants at a news conference Wednesday to avoid the dangerous journey, saying smugglers’ only concern was profits.</p>
<p>Survivors of the May 2 boat wreck told investigators they paid $15,000 to $18,500 to be smuggled from Mexico. Migrants smuggled in a makeshift boat that ran into trouble near San Diego’s La Jolla shores May 20, resulting in one fatal drowning, told authorities they paid $12,000 to $15,000.</p>
<p>In March, Neil Edwin Valera, a U.S. citizen, was sentenced to five years in prison in connection with the deaths of three Chinese migrants, including a mother and her 15-year-old son, who were found in the trunk of his BMW.</p>
<p>“Smugglers will leave you in a trunk or a hidden compartment and they will not listen to your screams if you are in distress,” said Randy Grossman, acting U.S. attorney in San Diego. “They just want their fees.”</p>
