Submarine Loaded with Five tons of cocaine seized in Mexico

The self-propelled, semi-submersible craft, which is partially visible from the surface, was spotted 300 miles south west of the Mexico-Guatemala border by drug-surveillance aircraft patrolling the eastern Pacific.

When the four-man crew saw an approaching Navy ship and realised they had been spotted, they attempted to scuttle the submarine along with most of its cargo.

The 30-foot (10-meter) makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.

The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.

The suspects were flown by helicopter to the city of Huatulco, where they told reporters they left the Colombian coastal town of Buenaventura a week ago.

The crew members said they were fishermen forced to make the journey by drug traffickers who threatened to harm their families.

"We didn't know what was on board because we never saw it. It was sealed," said one of the four, Jose Felix Enriquez

Over the last two years, Colombian authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy have seized 13 submarine-like vessels outfitted for drug running. The five seized by American authorities were en route to Mexico or Central America, each loaded with 3 to 5 tons of cocaine.

The seizures point to a security threat that goes beyond drug trafficking. Many law enforcement officials are concerned that U.S. ports and shorelines could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks using such crudely built submarines.

"There could be 5 tons of anything on board these things," said a senior U.S. military official involved in the war on drugs.

A pair of submarines found among Colombian mangroves 10 days ago has bolstered intelligence claims that narco-terrorists are forcing engineers to help them to acquire a means of evading coastguards and satellites.

The 50ft-long submarines were found on slipways close to a river that would have allowed them to escape through Colombia’s largest port, Buenaventura, and into the Pacific Ocean. One of the vessels was ready for its maiden voyage and the second was 70% complete. They were protected by armed guerrillas and camouflaged beneath tropical leaves.

The official account maintains that they happened to be discovered by a passing military patrol, but observers suggest the military was tipped off by US intelligence operatives in the region.

Captured workers described how they had sweated at gun-point to meet a Christmas deadline set by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the terrorist group that controls up to a third of the country and trades cocaine for weapons. The workers have not been charged with any crime.