Homemade Submarine Carrying 3 Tons of Cocaine Seized by Colombian Navy

The Colombian Navy announced Sunday it seized a submarine used by narcotics smugglers off the coast of Colombia in the Pacific Ocean. Inside of the submarine were two dead traffickers, two slightly alive traffickers and three tons of cocaine worth $87 million.

The navy announced the bust via Twitter with a video and a few images of the drugs all laid out, plus some bonus shots of the absolutely bonkers-looking submarine.

It looks rickety as all hell, which is probably the case as the submarine itself is the reason for the sorry state of the drug ship’s crew. The two survivors were found in poor health due to fuel issues inside of the sub, and given first aid onboard, CBS reports:

“These people’s poor health state is presumably due to the inhalation of toxic fumes caused by fuel problems inside the boat,” Captain Cristian Andres Guzman Echeverry said in a video released by the navy.

The roughly 50-foot-long submarine was carrying almost 5,800 pounds of cocaine, worth more than $87 million, officials said. The navy said the vessel had been bound for countries in Central America, and that the seizure had kept more than 6 million doses of cocaine off the illegal market.

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The rescued men, the two victims and the seized drugs were brought to Tumaco, “where they were presented to the Technical Investigation Corps of the Attorney General’s Office,” the statement said.

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Okay, it’s an impressive looking submarine, but apparently it needs a bit more in the maintenance department. Here’s a tip: If there’s one vessel you don’t want suffocating your crew, it’s the one with all the cocaine aboard.

We’ve seen traffickers using semi-submersible and fully-submersible crafts for years now. Most traffickers make do with homemade submarines. In 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard seized a self-propelled, semi-submersible craft with six tons of cocaine aboard. The Colombian Navy also picked up a similar submersible last year with four tons of cocaine aboard.