- The Colombian Navy intercepted a narco-submarine carrying 795 kilos of cocaine off the Pacific coast on Saturday
- The shipment, valued at approximately $23.8 million, was headed to Central America; three suspects were arrested
- The huge shipment was split into nearly 800 packages with scorpion stickers and Mexican flag stickers
A 14-meter narco-submarine loaded with 795 kilograms of cocaine was intercepted off Colombia’s Pacific coast, the military said.
The homemade ship was headed to Central America when it was successfully intercepted by the Navy outside the seaport city of Buenaventura on Saturday morning.
The cocaine was split into nearly 800 small, rectangular packages, wrapped in plastic. Each package contained images of scorpions and Mexican flags. The massive shipment could have yielded two million doses.
Four suspects, whose names have not been released, have been arrested.
Four suspects were taken into custody by Colombian authorities on Saturday after being caught in a narco-sub bound for Central America with nearly $23.8 worth of cocaine. The package contained scorpion and Mexican flag stickers
Colombian authorities on Saturday intercepted a 795 kilo cocaine shipment destined for Central America
The cocaine packages seized from the narco ships were covered with stickers depicting scorpions and Mexican flags
Navy spokesman Capt. Wilmer Roa said the submarine was the first to be intercepted this year after 10 narco-submarines were captured in 2023.
“In reality, this was a minor attack,” he said. “We’ve captured submarines with almost 8,000 pounds of the drug.”
Drug trafficking organizations use the hulls of speedboats to build the submarines and adapt to their ability to travel just below the sea’s surface, according to Roa.
“Some people die in these machines because they experience mechanical failures, or have very small ducts to let in fresh air,” he said.
Despite continued shipment failures, the Colombian government has failed to curb cocaine production in recent years, with rebel groups and drug gangs taking over territory vacated by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas following the group’s 2016 peace deal with the government.
A Colombian official examines some of the cocaine seized after the navy intercepted a narco-submarine on Saturday
The 13-meter-long narco-submarine was found sailing beneath the Pacific Ocean off the Colombian port city of Buenaventura when it was intercepted on Saturday.
Colombia’s military intercepted its first narco-submarine of the year after stopping 10 in 2023
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Colombia’s area planted with coca bushes reached a record high of 230,000 hectares in 2022, with potential cocaine production also rising to 1,700 tonnes – a 24 percent increase from the previous year.
As production of the Type-A party drug continues to increase in Colombia, neighboring Ecuador serves as a popular route for drug trafficking organizations smuggling shipments to the United States and Europe.
On Saturday, officials in Ecuador announced that they had also seized a submarine containing 3.2 tons of cocaine. The submarine was captured based on information from the Colombian Navy.
In late December, the Colombian military intercepted a narco-submarine carrying 1,697 kilos of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the western province of Nariño.