US Coast Guard Seizes 6 Tons of Cocaine

Even if they did lose two tons of the drug on the way home.

Although the bust, which took place in the Pacific Ocean about 200 miles south of Mexico, happened on July 18, it was not announced until Wednesday.

After removing 12,000 pounds of the narcotics aboard, the crew of Stratton attempted to tow the vessel to shore as evidence; however, the semi-submersible began taking on water and sank.

“We’re trying to hang onto that boat and sustain it and it let it ride better in the water”, Petty Officer Michael Anderson told the Los Angeles Times.

The smuggling vessel was carrying 16,000 pounds of cocaine but agents were only able to seize about 12,000 pounds. (This woman tried to smuggle liquid cocaine in a most unusual way.).

The Coast Guard seized a semi-submersible ship carrying 1 million worth of cocaine.

CNN reported that as of April, the Coast Guard had seized 28 tons of cocaine so far in its fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Unfortunately for the smugglers, the boat was spotted by a US Navy plane, who alerted the Coast Guard.

The amateur-made subs are extremely hard to detect as they are mostly submerged with only a cockpit and an exhaust pipe slightly noticeable above the surface.

The semi-submersible vessel seizure is the largest of its type in the Coast Guard’s history.

“Every seizure disrupts the networks of global organized crime and reinforces the security and stability in the Western Hemisphere”, said Vice Admiral Charles W. Ray, head of the Pacific, said in the statement. At least 25 such vehicles have been stopped in the Eastern Pacific since November of 2006, the Coast Guard said.

Stratton’s semi-submersible busts are the first and second by a Legend Class Cutter, the Coast Guard’s newest cutters built to replace its Hamilton class cutters.