The United States Coast Guard said it recovered seven tons of cocaine from a narco sub, a self-propelled semi-submersible vessel that is used to transport illegal drugs. The drugs were brought to shore Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida, and will be handed over to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida where the case is being handled.
This is the third semi-submersible to be stopped by the Coast Guard in the Caribbean Sea and the second interdiction by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk.
Narco subs may become trend in Caribbean
“We’ve got two within about two weeks of each other,” said Coast Guard Cmdr. Mark J. Fedor, the Mohawk's commanding officer. “It really makes you wonder how many of these things might be coming through.”
This recent semi-submersible that didn’t make it past law enforcement was stopped by the Mohawk on September 30.
“It was spotted by a maritime patrol aircraft,” Fedor said. “We were a long way away from it. We had to run at full sped for about 12 to 15 hours until we were in a spot to make the interdiction.”
It was dark when the Mohawk arrived at the vessel, which was off the coast Honduras, said Fedor. A small boat that the Mohawk launched fired warning shots across the bow of the narco sub when it refused to stop.
“Once we did that they stopped,”said Fedor, “and right after they stopped they scuttled the vessel.”
During the other interdictions, July 13 and September 17, the narco subs were also sunk by the crew.
“The thing sank beneath them just as the other one did, the only down side was no bales floated to the top,” said Fedor, “but what we did know was that boat sank in only 80 feet of water.”
Fedor requested that divers be brought to the scene to try and bring the drugs to the surface. A few weeks after the initial stop the Coast Guard said the FBI’s technical dive team found the semi-submersible and recovered the cocaine cargo. The cargo is now evidence against the vessel’s four crew members.
FBI's terrorism search goes undersea
The U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release, the crew, Jorge Colomer, 47, of Honduras; Guilforth Romero, 24, of Honduras; Manuel Cuero, 30, of Colombia; and Marcos Salazar, 30, of Colombia, have been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of violating the Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008. If convicted they each face a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
15 years seems awefully light for this kind of crime. That should have gotten a life sentence.
CNN – It looks like a similiar article has been posted regarding this topic.
Guess I won't need my crackpipe this week.
Lay down thy crackpipe, Philip, and follow thy father.
"We all live in a yellow submarine ......"
I've tried ham & cheese subs. I've tried meatball subs. I've tried italian meat subs. But I've never tried a narco sub.
Too much metal in em, it gets stuck in your teeth.
Plenty of iron for sure. Plus built in tooth picks.
Slow Slug Sub
Try saying that fast five times ... whew, I'd try one.
An Escargot Slo Slug Ka Bob sounds hmmm ... crunchy-scrispy might work to ... Mmmmmmm
Shoot, I can't say that one time fast. And I'm sober. lol
I don't think I want to try a narco sub.
Too much pharmceuticals, ya know.
Good one. lol
Let me guess... it was being operated by a CIA agent who didn't know the Iran-Contra-Cocaine scandal was deemed "a bad thing"...
I ordered one sub sandwich in my life, decades ago.
I had to play in some hick town near Boston and nothing else was open when I got there.
Hated it. Left most of it, I think.
I'd rather eat snails.
Maybe try escargot on a sub roll. Hey, you never know. We could call it the slow slug sub.
Hey, now.. No need to diss what different people like, snailboy. Might call on a brodown.. Bro?!
@leeintulsa
Not dissin dude.
And what's a brodown Bro ?
@bobcat2u: that was @joey, and the latest south park will show you brodown lol
@leeintulsa
My bad.
I'll check out south park to see the brodown. Sounds interesting.
Sounds like there's going to be some marine life in need of an intervention along that route. We need a hippie mermaid...call Darryl Hannah!
i wish i knew where the sub went down and had scuba gear... i'd be rich...
i recover the sub and take chicks out in it and when the lake jacomo police tried to stop me i'd submerge and give them the finger as we were submerging...
I love subs.....been on the uss torsk, and uss natailus. Loved it.
@s kel
I love subs too. Especially the meatball w/extra parmesan.
cute and chronic.Now they are deploying drones to deliver drugs.
who is the manufacturer of the unmaned submarine ? ah,drug drone.