By Robert Gearty | Fox News
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter has seized an apparent narco-submarine carrying more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine worth approximately $69 million during an interdiction operation in the Pacific Ocean.
The semi-submersible vessel was transporting 2 1/2 tons of cocaine at the time of the Oct. 23 seizure by Coast Guard law enforcement personnel aboard the Harriet Lane.
COAST GUARD INTERCEPTS UNDERSEA VESSEL CARRYING $165M OF COCAINE
“Boarding teams from the cutter deployed in interceptor boats and stopped the suspected smuggling vessel just before midnight,” the Coast Guard said in a news release Thursday.
“The boarding teams took control of the vessel before the four suspected smugglers aboard could sink the craft using installed scuttling valves.”
The exact location of the bust wasn’t disclosed.
“I am really proud of our crew and the precision and professionalism with which they conducted this interdiction,” said Cmdr. Dorothy Hernaez, Commanding Officer of the Harriet Lane, in the statement. . “It was an all hands on deck effort to properly position the cutter and to safely make the seizure.”
The Harriet Lane – a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter commissioned in 1984, operates out of Portsmouth in Virginia.
