3.6 tons — or nearly 8,000 pounds — of cocaine aboard a “narco sub” off the Pacific coast was seized by the Mexican Navy on Tuesday.
The boat, which was spotted earlier this week about 153 miles off the resort of Acapulco, was carrying 102 packages filled with bricks of cocaine, authorities said in a news release.
The craft, of a type known as “go-fast boats,” was powered by two outboard motors and appeared to be a low-profile, semi-submersible craft — commonly known as a “narco sub” — designed to make detection more difficult.
"Narco sub" carrying 8,000 pounds of cocaine intercepted in Pacific Ocean, Mexican Navy says https://t.co/TML5s1NPvB
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) November 6, 2024
Aboard the craft, the Navy detained nine crew members, six of whom were foreigners. The Navy did not specify their nationalities, but many of the boats found off Mexico have Colombian or Venezuelan crew members.
The seizure comes just weeks after the Mexican navy announced it had seized more than 8.3 tons of drugs in the Pacific Ocean, a record for a single operation at sea.
The cargo was intercepted from six different vessels, including a “narco sub” that held about 4,800 pounds of narcotics.
The Navy said Tuesday that more than 15,000 kilograms of alleged drugs have been seized at sea under the current administration.
Earlier this year, Mexico’s Navy seized more than seven tons of suspected cocaine in two separate raids in the Pacific Ocean, and dramatic video captured the high-speed chases on the open sea.
In September, the U.S. Coast Guard said that it had offloaded more than $54 million worth of cocaine — including over 1,200 pounds of drugs that were seized from a “narco sub.”