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A 49 foot-long narco-submarine loaded with 795 kilos of cocaine was intercepted off Colombia’s Pacific coast, the military said.
The homemade vessel was bound for Central America when it was successfully intercepted by the navy Saturday morning outside the seaport city of Buenaventura.
The cocaine was split into almost 800 small rectangular packages wrapped in plastic. Each packet was stamped with images of scorpions and Mexican flags. The massive shipment could have produced two million doses.
Four suspects, whose names were not released, were taken into custody.
Four suspects were taken into custody by Colombian authorities Saturday after they were busted in a narco-sub headed to Central American with almost $23.8 worth of cocaine. The packaged contained scorpion and Mexican flag stickers
Colombian authorities intercepted a cocaine shipment of 795 kilos destined for Central America on Saturday
The cocaine packages seized from the narco vessels were covered with scorpion and Mexican flag stickers
Navy spokesman Captain Wilmer Roa said the submersible was the first to be intercepted this year after 10 narco-submarines were captured in 2023.
‘In reality, this was a small seizure,’ he said. ‘We´ve caught submarines with almost 3,500 kilos of the drug.’
Drug trafficking organizations, according to Roa, utilize the hulls of speedboats to built the submarines and adjust to they can travel just under the surface of the sea.
‘Some people die inside these machines, because they experience mechanical failures, or have very small ducts for letting in fresh air,’ he said.
Despite the ongoing shipments busts, the Colombian government has been unable to curb cocaine production in recent years with rebel groups and drug trafficking gangs taking over territory that was abandoned by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas following the group’s 2016 peace deal with the government.
A Colombian official examines part of the cocaine that was confiscated after the navy intercepted a narco-submarine on Saturday
The 49 foot-long narco sub was found sailing under the Pacific Ocean of the Colombian port city of Buenaventura when it was intercepted Saturday
The Colombian military intercepted its first narco-submarine of the year after stopping 10 in 2023
According to the UN´s office for Drug and Crime, the area planted with coca bushes in Colombia reached an all-time high of 230,000 hectares in 2022, with potential cocaine production also rising to 1,700 tons – a 24 percent increase from the previous year.
As the production of the Type-A party drug continues to increase in Colombia, its neighbor, Ecuador serves as a popular route for drug trafficking organizations smuggling shipments to the United States and Eurpoe.
On Saturday, officials in Ecuador announced they had also seized a submarine carrying 3.2 tons of cocaine. The submarine was captured with information supplied by Colombia´s navy.
In late December, the Colombian military intercepted a narco-sub carrying 1,697 kilos of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the western province on Nariño.
