Maria Eugenia Chavez-Segovia, 41, Victor Perez Degollado, 29, and Maricela Hernandez Sanchez, 35, killed in boating accident off coast of San Diego, California

Weather conditions, which caused the boat to break apart, also hindered the rescue efforts, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. There were seven-foot swells, low clouds and some rain.

Local lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10:30 a.m. following reports of an overturned vessel near the peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

A packed boat being used in a suspected human smuggling operation capsized Sunday and broke apart in powerful surf along the rocky San Diego coast, killing three people and injuring more than two dozen others, authorities said.

Officials have identified the three people who were killed when a cabin cruiser capsized in rugged waters off the coast of San Diego over the weekend – a boat suspected of being used for human smuggling.

Hurtado appeared in front of a judge via closed-circuit television wearing a tan-colored jumpsuit and a face mask to face charges of harboring non-citizens of the U.S. and assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol officer as he was being taken into custody, prosecutors said.

A man who piloted a boat that crashed near Point Loma during an apparent human-smuggling operation, leading to the deaths of three people and injuries to more than two dozen others, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges.