3rd Fleet Focus: Cocaine Confiscated on High Seas

UPI has an interesting story to go along with this image from Navy NewsStand.

Four suspected drug runners and 11 bails of cocaine were plucked from the Pacific Ocean off the Mexico-Guatamala coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.

Coast Guard officials in Alameda, Calif., said a 50-foot semi-submersible craft was spotted Monday by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance aircraft about 300 miles southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border. The vessel was abandoned by its crew and sank a short time later, the Coast Guard said. The cocaine bundles bobbed to the surface as a boarding team from the USS DeWert approached to rescue the crew.

"This case shows the challenges our counter-drug patrol forces face, and the lengths to which the drug smuggling organization will go to get their deadly product to the U.S.," said Rear Adm. Craig Bone, tactical commander of U.S. counter drug operations in the Eastern Pacific. "This low-profile semi-submersible craft was very difficult to detect."

The exactly how much cocaine was seized had not been determined and no additional information was provided about the suspects.

More than 90 tons of cocaine has been seized in the Eastern Pacific this fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1.

Eagle1 saw this too, and has background on the use of semi-submersible's for drug smuggling.

I'm impressed, $352 million in cocaine! This is a really nice job of inter-agency cooperation, multiple assets from DHS and the Navy resulting in some good work.