30-meter lengthy narco sub was sinking when boarded by Colombian Marines. [Coumbian Navy photo]
A U.S. courtroom could have simply sentenced Colombia’s “Prince of the Semisubmersibles” to a hefty jail time period, however that doesn’t imply that the narco sub downside has gone away. On May 12, the Columbian Navy reported it had intercepted the largest narco sub seized since its first seize of one of many semi-submersible low profile vessels in 1993.
Measuring 30 meters lengthy by three meters broad, it was carrying over three tonnes of cocaine and was the third such vessel intercepted by Colombian authorities this 12 months.
The seizure was made in a joint operation with the Columbian Air Force that had worldwide help. After the radars of Colombian Navy ships deployed within the Pacific Ocean detected a suspicious vessel navigating within the South Pacific space, monitoring started with worldwide help and a Colombian Air Force plane, and Coast Guard models carrying Columbia marines interdicted the vessel.
Despite hostile meteorological situations, the marines managed to grab the semi-submersible, which had begun to sink resulting from water ingress into its the engine house.
The three Colombian nationals on board have been rescued. After an inspection, army personnel recovered 102 packages of narcotics and tried to refloat the semi-submersible, however with none success and it was sunk in order not current a hazard to navigation within the space.
The three rescued crew members, aged 63, 54 and 45, stated they have been pressured by a drug trafficking group to embark and take the semi-submersible with the cocaine to Central America.
They have been transferred to the district of Tumaco – Nariño, the place they have been introduced earlier than the competent authorities, who carried out checks that confirmed that the substances seized have been cocaine hydrochloride and had a internet weight of three,058 kilograms.
To put that in perspective, in one of many largest narco sub interdictions by U.S authorities, in April 2021 a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) plane assisted the U.S. Coast Guard seizure of approximately 2,500 kilograms of cocaine from a semi-submersible vessel.
