Coast Guard reveals inside of cocaine-filled submarine stormed in dramatic video
The U.S. Coast Guard released dramatic footage this month showing a crew member leaping onto a drug-filled submarine in Pacific Ocean waters — and now the Coast Guard has revealed what that seized vessel looks like on the inside.
The cabin of the sub is filled with empty plastic bottles and other refuse, as a photo released on Facebook by the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area on Wednesday shows. The Coast Guard’s Cutter Munro crew seized the vessel west of South America on June 18.
But its contents weren’t just trash: More than 17,000 pounds of cocaine were also aboard the sub, which the Coast Guard described as a self-propelled semi-submersible.
“These vessels are constructed for the sole purpose of smuggling as much contraband undetected as possible,” according to the Coast Guard Facebook post, which said that the pure cocaine carried on the sub was worth roughly $232 million.
That vessel was one of eight the Munro crew caught on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Eastern Pacific Ocean during the California-based crew’s recent three-month patrol. It was part of a larger drug-hunting mission that included two more cutters and focused on international waters near Central and South America and Mexico, the Coast Guard said in a news release earlier this month.
In the intense footage of the sub seizure released earlier, a Coast Guard crew member shouts, “Stop your boat! Now!” in Spanish — and then jumps onto the small vessel amid choppy seas and lifts open the sub’s hatch, revealing suspected drug smugglers inside.
Last week, the Munro crew returned to their San Francisco Bay Area base in Alameda, the Coast Guard said in the Facebook post Wednesday.
“I’m incredibly proud of this crew and their accomplishments,” Capt. James Estramonte, the crew’s commanding officer, said in a statement released by the Coast Guard on July 15. “As they spend some well-deserved down time with their families, they can rest assured that they’ve made a difference by preventing this poison from reaching our streets.”
All told, the trove of drugs the Munro crew seized could have sold for as much as $467 million, the Coast Guard said. Four times as much cocaine is seized by U.S. authorities at sea than is seized in the country and at the borders, according to the Coast Guard, which said it leads most of the offshore seizures.
The Coast Guard said its crews intercepted a total of 209 metric tons of cocaine last year alone, which is equal to 4.81 billion doses of the drug.
The Munro crew offloaded 933 pounds of marijuana and 39,000 pounds of cocaine in San Diego before heading north to Alameda this month, the Coast Guard said.
Vice President Mike Pence went aboard the Munro in San Diego and spoke to its crew, according to a transcript of his remarks released by the White House.
“The Coast Guard is seizing illegal drugs at a faster rate than ever before,” Pence said. “And you all have been at the tip of the spear, making that happen.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Coast Guard reveals inside of cocaine-filled submarine stormed in dramatic video."
