Moment when a clumsy team of drug smugglers are rescued from the top of their sinking Colombian Narco submarine some 300 miles off the Spanish coast – before police arrest them
- The men are seen standing on top of a sinking submarine
Dramatic footage shows how drug smugglers aboard a narco-submarine bound for Spain’s southern coast were rescued from the sinking ship on Wednesday before being arrested in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
In a video released by the Spanish Civil Guard and the Spanish Tax Authorities, four men, who are Colombian nationals, are seen in life jackets standing on top of a sinking submarine as a customs surveillance vessel approaches the ship.
Another clip shows the submarine’s crew floating in the sea as waves crash against them, next to black barrels – which the crew appears to have held onto to stay afloat.
The men can then be seen climbing a ladder onto the ship, before another video shows them being arrested once they get on board. The drug smugglers are then seen face down while handcuffed by the vigilante.
The blue ship was sailing 450 miles west of the coast of Cadiz when the crew spotted a surveillance vessel.
A Narco submarine carrying a shipment of cocaine was intercepted yesterday off the coast of Cadiz, Spain
The crew of four men, from Colombia, were rescued from the sinking submarine after deliberately sinking the ship to get rid of their illegal cargo.
According to the Tax authorities, the men surfaced and opened the submarine’s valves, allowing the ship to fill with water and sink to the bottom of the sea along with its precious cargo.
Police suspect the ship was carrying a large shipment of cocaine, given its similarity to previously seized narco-submarines.
The operation, carried out jointly by the Spanish Civil Guard, the National Police and the Tax Authorities, began on Monday when authorities received a tip from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
The DEA had reportedly detected a possible drop-off between an unknown vessel and a semi-submersible vessel.
The 65-foot blue submarine was eventually spotted off the coast of Cadiz but was successfully intercepted by authorities.
The men were filmed floating in the water, keeping themselves afloat with black, empty barrels
The drug traffickers were eventually arrested by the same authorities who helped them out of the waters
Coincidentally, the customs surveillance vessel had already been loaded with 900 kilos of seized cocaine after an operation just a few days earlier.
The surveillance ship had spotted a speedboat carrying a shipment of cocaine near the Canary Islands on Saturday after receiving a tip-off from the British National Crime Agency and the DEA.
9,000kg of cocaine was dumped into the ocean by the seafaring criminals as the vigilante tried to capture the drug mules during a reportedly six-hour chase. Canary Islands7.
While the speedboat managed to escape and reach the island of La Palma, authorities discovered the abandoned boat on the island’s Tazacorte beach the next day. Police said the boat matched the one chased the day before.