US Customs seize submarine filled with cocaine
A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, US officials said.
Four suspected smugglers were operating the self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel when it was located and seized on Sunday evening by officials from the US Customs and Border Protection, US Navy and the US Coast Guard, the Border Patrol said today.
When the suspects realised they had been spotted by drug-surveillance aircraft patrolling the eastern Pacific, they scuttled the vessel but were unable to escape.
Coast Guard officials, guided by the reconnaissance plane, intercepted the vessel and detained the suspected smugglers, who were transporting approximately 5.5 tons of cocaine worth £176 million, the Border Patrol said.
The interception occurred off the coast of Central America about 300 miles south-west of the Mexico-Guatemala border, the US Coast Guard said in a separate statement.
Several drug-carrying submarines operated by Colombian drug cartels have been discovered in recent years.
