“Narco sub” loaded with 6.5 tons of cocaine seized in Atlantic Ocean with help from DEA, Portugal police say

Officials just lately confiscated just about 6.5 lots of cocaine from a semi-submersible vessel, or so-called “narco sub,” intercepted off the Azores whilst certain for the Iberian peninsula, Portugal’s judicial police mentioned.

The bust, dubbed Operation Nautilus, quantities to almost 1 / 4 of the document 23 lots seized throughout the entire of 2024 in Portugal, continuously regarded as one of the most first issues of access for the drug into Europe. Drug traffickers were stuck the use of semi-submersible vessels to smuggle cocaine whilst making an attempt to evade detection.

The vessel was once intercepted “in the course of the Atlantic Ocean, round 500 nautical miles” south of Portugal’s Azores archipelago, the judicial police statement said.

5 workforce individuals had been onboard the vessel, which was once utilized by a global crime ring, the commentary added.  Police released video of the operation, appearing the vessel loaded with orange applications in addition to 4 suspects with their faces blurred out.

But even so the Portuguese military and air pressure, global companions together with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Management, the British Nationwide Crime Company and the Spanish Guardia Civil contributed to the bust, in accordance the police.

Portuguese police mentioned that the operation took place just lately, with out specifying the date.

Many “narco subs” can’t absolutely dive like a real submarine, however some are ready to dip utterly underwater.

Many of the cocaine smuggled into Portugal comes around the sea from Latin The united states.

Regardless that maximum repeatedly observed off the coast of Colombia, “narco subs” were noticed around the globe in contemporary months. 

In January, a “narco sub” broke in two items as a fishing boat was once towing it to a port in northwestern Spain. In November, the Mexican Navy said it seized about 8,000 kilos of cocaine aboard a “narco sub” about 150 miles off the resort of Acapulco.  In September, the U.S. Coast Guard mentioned that it had offloaded greater than $54 million price of cocaine  — together with over 1,200 kilos of gear that had been seized from a “narco sub.”