More than three tons of cocaine has been found on board a semi-submersible travelling towards the United States off the coast of California.
The drugs, which have a street value of several million dollars, were found as a result of a joint Coast Guard, CBP and Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
On this occasion, the vessel was virtually invisible to the naked eye, with most of the boat beneath the surface.
It is just one of many ways drug traffickers are coming up with ever more elaborate schemes in order to smuggle drugs into the United States, including the use of submarines to get narcotics across the border.
Miles off the coast of California, a U.S. Coast Guard ship was dispatched to intercept a submarine-like vessel with millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine on board, bound for the U.S.
The suspects quickly put their arms in the air as the coast guard intercepted them
In this case, four people were captured who were travelling on board a so-called ‘narco sub’ that was allegedly bound for the U.S.
ABC News reported how teams of heavily armed members of the Coast Guard rapidly surrounded the sub forcing the suspects to raise their hands in the air and to be taken into custody.
The problem is only getting worse with 50,000 pounds of cocaine and heroin valued at more than a half-a-billion dollars confiscated since August.
Most of the cocaine consumed in the United States originates in Colombia.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited the Coast Guard in San Diego on Wednesday calling attention to Coast Guard seizures of more than 227 tons of cocaine during the fiscal year
Customs and Border Protection aircraft armed with high-powered surveillance cameras are able to see any suspicious vessels clearly using infra red cameras
Authorities observed a triangular submarine-like vessel to avoid being detected
According to the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Justice, a record $6 billion dollars in drugs have been intercepted with almost 600 suspected traffickers arrested.
It means Customs and Border Protection patrols have had to raise their game and redouble their efforts in order to catch the perpetrators using high-powered surveillance night vision cameras, including infrared, that can see beneath the waves.
Similar to how the military are using drones in their day-to-day operations on the battlefield, the war on drugs also sees Customs and Border Protection agents using aircraft to seek out anything that looks suspicious.
Using high-powered surveillance cameras, very tiny objects are brought into focus.
In this case, a triangular submarine-like vessel was operating almost completely underwater in an attempt to avoid being detected.
The ‘narco’ sub looked to be designed so as to avoid detection but the U.S. Coast Guard were able to spot them clearly using high powered cameras
More than 455,034 pounds of cocaine, worth over $6.1 billion which has been intercepted by the Coast Guard in Fiscal Year 2017
On Wednesday, the Coast Guard intercepted 50,000 pounds of cocaine and heroin worth an estimated $700 million in San Diego.
This morning’s offload, which was attended by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was the result of 25 separate seizures conducted by four Coast Guard cutters and a Navy ship, which began on August 2, 2017.
‘We are facing a challenge in this country with drug abuse, addiction like we’ve never seen before,’ said Sessions.
Sessions credited the rise to the availability, purity and low price of illicit drugs.
More than 455,034 pounds of cocaine, worth over $6.1 billion which has been intercepted by the Coast Guard in Fiscal Year 2017, surpassing 2016’s record of 443,000 pounds.
Nearly 600 suspected smugglers were apprehended by the Coast Guard and turned over to federal authorities for prosecution in the U.S. during the year. This is up from 465 suspects in 2016 and 373 in fiscal year 2015.