March 31, 2026 — The call often comes in the middle of the night to the U.S. Coast Guard station at South Padre Island, Texas, rousing service members from their bunks.
A lancha, typically a slim, 20- to 30-foot boat with an outboard motor, is spotted, overflowing with red snapper, 9 miles off the coast in federal waters.
Best known for its emergency response efforts at sea, the Coast Guard also polices the take of marine species from U.S. waters. In the Gulf of Mexico, its crews board their trademark white-and-orange cutter vessels to catch lanchas suspected of illegally fishing for species such as red snapper and sharks.
“It’s a common problem and it’s been a problem that the Coast Guard has been tackling for decades,” said Lt. Phillip VanderWeit, commanding officer with the Coast Guard’s Gulf Regional Fisheries Training Center, where service members, along with state and local law enforcement, are trained to enforce fisheries regulations and conservation laws.
Lanchas can cast off quickly from the Mexican Gulf coast, with crews of up to six fishermen, known as lancheros. They often travel at night in an attempt to hide from U.S. enforcement agencies, targeting out-of-season or undersized fish with types of gear banned under American law. Their catch often exceeds legal limits, officials said. Other species are also inadvertently caught in their nets.
The lancheros aren’t simply choosing to skirt the law on their own. Officials and researchers who track their activity say they’re often forced into illegal fishing by Mexican drug cartels. Cártel del Golfo (the Gulf Cartel) is considered the primary culprit, according to the U.S. Treasury. Most of its lanchas are based out of Playa Bagdad in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state just across the border from South Padre Island.