U.S. Coast Guard Captures Submarine Carrying $165M Worth of Cocaine

The U.S. Coast Guard seized a 40-foot self-propelled semi-submersible vessel carrying 12,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $165 million earlier this month, the Coast Guard said in a press release Tuesday. The vessel was intercepted in the Eastern Pacific with the assistance of Colombian naval assets, and the Coast Guard apprehended four suspected drug smugglers. The Coast Guard was able to unload 1,000 pounds of cocaine but had to leave the rest due to stability concerns of the vessel. “There are no words to describe the feeling the Valiant crew is experiencing right now,” Cmdr. Matthew Waldron, Valiant's commanding officer, said. “In a 24-hour period, the crew both crossed the equator and intercepted a drug-laden self-propelled semi-submersible vessel. Each in and of themselves is momentous events in any cutterman's career. Taken together, however, it is truly remarkably unprecedented.”