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Coast Guard cutter stops cocaine-laden submarine — Geez. Who knew about “narco subs?”
The crew of the Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett, and a Navy maritime patrol aircraft, teamed up Wednesday to catch a drug-running submarine carrying seven tons of cocaine worth about $196 million, Coast Guard officials said Friday.
The 60-foot sub, a semi-submersible vessel, was interdicted by the Midgett about 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemalan border after the Navy air crew detected it and guided the cutter to it.
A Midgett armed boarding party quickly climbed aboard the sub and found 195 bales of cocaine in a large forward compartment, authorities said.
As the bales were being transferred, the submersible became unstable and started to sink. Unsafe to tow, the Midgett’s crew sank the vessel, considering it a potential hazard to navigation.
It was the second discovery of a drug-sub, called simply an “SPSS” for “self-propelled semi-submersible” vessel, in two days. The vessels, which are considered “stateless” because they are unflagged, are capable of traveling the distance from Ecuador to San Diego without replenishment, the Coast Guard said.
The first sub was captured last Sunday by the USS McInerney’s crew about 350 miles of the coast of Guatemala with four suspected Colombian drug runners and seven tons of cocaine, a Naval Forces Southern Command statement said.
The smugglers had tried to throw the boarding team into the sea by quickly reversing engines. But acting swiftly, the team thwarted an attempt to scuttle the vessel when it “compelled the smugglers to comply” with orders to close scuttling valves, a Coast Guard news release said. The McInerney took the sub in tow.
The drug subs, also known as narco-subs, are homemade and between 25-65 feet long. They are capable of carrying three to five tons of cocaine, and are designed solely for the secret smuggling of illegal drugs, Navy officials said.
By “self-propelled” do they have a guy on a bicycle inside or what?
For some reason, this reminds me of Gilligan’s Island.
“The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost.”
The Colombian army recently destroyed a submarine manufacturing plant located way up a river deep in the jungle. The subs in the photos I saw looked more sophisticated than this boiler-looking thing. The Colombians also arrested a couple European naval architects hired by the cartels.
This just shows if there is a demand there will be a supply. The falling street price of coke proves that enough is getting through.
Okay, I know that drugs are bad and everything, but smuggling via submarine is pretty cool in a 007 kinda way…..
I’ve heard of people “going down” to get drugs but this takes the cake… god, that was a bad joke.
If the captain said “Blow the tanks!” would the crew stick $100 bills up their nostrils?
Lol, that was an even worse pun.
With all the money in the Coke biz. You would think that they would buy a better sub.
It’s like W running the operation.
I wonder how many of these have gone to the bottom with all hands.
Do you know how BIG the ocean is? And how sophisticated the Navy technology is in order to be able to FIND this thing?
I like the part about the Coast Guard “compelled the smugglers to comply”. Wish I could have seen that. Bad ass military guys don’t screw around. Lots of great firepower, that.
USA USA USA. Kick their ass. Me? I would have simply used the sub for target practice, all hands on board. Flying no flag makes them pirates.
This is about the 3rd or 4th time I’ve heard about these “subs”. They should invest in better tech… They are pretty crude.
How many are getting through?
#9 “How many are getting through?”
The amount is:
Total sent – total caught – total that sink = amount that get through.
Haven’t these subs been blogged about here before? Anyway, I’m impressed — that they could get anybody to crew the thing! Actually, it is kind of impressive that it could go from Ecuador to San Diego “without replenishment.” How? Possibly with a gasoline or diesel engine and a few dozen car batteries? (The video on the page with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer story shows the thing emitting a lot of black smoke, so I’m thinking diesel. It looks like just a low boat, like it can’t really fully submerge at all, just ride low in the water.) I wonder what the stench must be like with 4 or 5 or so people in a closed pipe for the weeks it must take to go that distance. I wonder what the starting and stopping points are, and whether they reuse these things or just scuttle them. I also suspect that fewer than half of them ever get where they are headed, whether they get interdicted (caught) or (more likely) just flat sink. A good wind or moderately high seas might do it.
My God!! They have discovered the secrets of the “Caterpillar Drive” tSoon, they will be able to evade our electronic nets and surface at any place they wish! Perhaps even New Jersey!!!
God help us all. Our only chance is convince the skipper to defect.
I wonder how many of these went the way of the CSS Hunley?
Somebody needs to say it: “Stop this stupidity and legalize all drugs.” Let liberty and the free market reign.
#15 ““Stop this stupidity and legalize all drugs.” Let liberty and the free market reign”
As long as all employers can do mandatory drug testing, penalties for crimes committed while on drugs is tripled, etc, etc.
The cartels make more than many countries because the drugs are illegal. I am surprised they haven’t bought a WWII era sub or few with torpedos.
“about 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemalan border”
I wonder why our Coast Gaurd vessel was that far south. Must be the longest and most expensive war in US history: The Drug War.
#16–Paddy==in general==yes. Being intoxicated at work is and should continue to be illegal. Showing traces of drugs in your system while completely sober should not be actionable.
HOw many countries need to be subverted by drugs in order for the USA to feel righteous?
Imagine if we could get these guys (or even our own politicians) to be this dedicated to deliver renewable energy. We’d be petro-independent by 2015, maybe.
#18 “Showing traces of drugs in your system while completely sober should not be actionable.”
Not true. People who regularly take mind altering drugs have impaired judgment and health. That is a workplace concern.
#20–Paddy==and when such traces show up, what should be the appropriate business based response?
Would the same response apply to all detectable things that impair judgment and health–or just drugs that used to illegal or would you also include tobacco and alcohol and medicinal drugs as well?
#21 “and when such traces show up, what should be the appropriate business based response?”
Whatever the employer deems appropriate. If you are under an at will employment agreement that’s the way it works now…
#22–Paddy!–what do you think the appropriate response should be? Your answer is a feed back loop to what actually forms your opinion. We both know that–so go ahead, drop the towel.
If it was _MY_ 196 million, I would have invested in a better sub.
But, probably, this money is chump change to these drug guys.
#23 babbling again. Please translate for us sane people on the board.
When I was a kid, you could order a small, “real working submarine” in the ads from comic books. I always wondered what happened to those.
I should grow cocoa plants in my backyard.
I would be doing a public service! After all, how many poor drug runners drown in those flimsy subs? The prices would go down – a plus for the consumer trying to make ends meet in these difficult economic times, and we won’t be supporting people who don’t like us.
I’ll be doing everyone a service for just a small cut!
(Next week, I’m digging an oil well right next to it)
It looks like an election year round up.Someone didn’t make a payoff.
@26 Jerry
Those damn things were made of cardboard. Biggest disappointment in my life until my Sea Monkeys arrived.
Mine was made out of plastic, and it still works. Just like my rubby ducky.
What are the laws for ‘stateless’ vessals? Could they be fired on and sunk if they didn’t
allow boarding?
That said, I’ve heard the cartels use expendable labor (i.e. friendly persuaded locals I bet) to crew them. So its just a $$ loss to the cartels, and the poor souls who crew them.