The U.S. Coast Guard said that it intercepted a semi-submersible in the Pacific Ocean that was carrying more than eight tons of cocaine – and they caught it on video.
View this video on YouTube
The semi-submersible – where the majority of the vessel is under water but the top potion is visible – was spotted by a Navy aircraft about 200 miles south of Mexico in the eastern Pacific Ocean on July 18, the Coast Guard said in a press release.
The crew of the USCGC Stratton from Alameda, California intercepted the vessel and seized 275 bales of cocaine – weighing more than 12,000 pounds and worth more than $181 million on the street.
An additional 4,000 pounds of the drug was left on the sub in an attempt to stabilize it. But the sub started to take on water and wound up sinking to 13,000 feet before it could be towed to shore. The vessel and remaining drugs are unrecoverable, the Coast Guard said.
In additional to the massive drug haul, four drug smugglers were apprehended. Their names have not been released.
"Every interception of these semi-submersibles disrupts transnational organized crime networks and helps increase security and stability in the Western Hemisphere," said Vice Admiral Charles W. Ray.
According to the Coast Guard the Stratton crew has seized more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine -- worth more than $540 million wholesale -- in the last three months alone. The same crew is also responsible for intercepting 15 different drug smuggling attempts since April.