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US Coast Guard Jumps Onto Homemade Submarine Carrying Nearly 8 Tonnes Worth Of Cocaine

US Coast Guard Jumps Onto Homemade Submarine Carrying Nearly 8 Tonnes Worth Of Cocaine

They stopped more than half a billion dollars of cocaine getting to the US.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

The US Coast Guard has been celebrating after tracking down and stopping a submarine bound for America, allegedly carrying nearly 8 tonnes worth of cocaine.

While the effort itself is pretty awesome, the video of how they foiled the submarine operators is bloody incredible.

According to Channel 9, the submarine was homemade and measured around 12 metres.

It was allegedly carrying eight tonnes of the white stuff, estimated to be worth USD $569 million (£453 million).

The video, which looks like it was shot on a helmet camera, shows a US Coast Guard boat trying to get close to the submarine as its top was breaching through the water's surface.

US Coast Guard

Because the conditions were too rough, an officer decided the only way the sub was going to stop was to hop on it. Then in true Hollywood fashion, he leapt onto the moving submersible and banged on the hatch.

After a few seconds, the hatch door opened and the people inside copped an absolute mouthful from the Coast Guard officer.

American authorities have been hot on cocaine imports into the Land of the Free recently.

US DEA

In May they seized more than 1.6 tons of the drug at Port New York/Newark before it was supposed to make its way to London and the Netherlands. The haul has an estimated street value of £58 million ($77 million).

The shipment came from Puerto Buenaventura in Colombia and was only inspected when customs authorities noticed the container seal had been broken.

When they X-rayed it, they realised they were looking at a humungous cocaine haul.

But that's child's play to the shipment discovered this week in Philadelphia.

A cargo ship that was holding 16.5 tons of cocaine worth over $1 billion (£798.4m) was seized in one of the largest cocaine hauls in the history of US Customs.

The $90 million (£71.8m) ship - called MSC Gayane - is owned by a transportation strategy fund which is run by banking giant JP Morgan Chase's management unit, MailOnline reports.

PA

It is believed that the bank has no operational control over the ship and it is being chartered to the Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company.

The Class A drug was seized by federal officials at the Philadelphia port on 17 June and it is now being dubbed the biggest cocaine haul in US Customs history.

According to MailOnline, the drugs were in cargo containers which were removed at the Packer Marine Terminal. The boat arrived there following a port call in Colombia on 19 May.

It also made stop-offs in Peru, Panama and the Bahamas before reaching Philadelphia.

Featured Image Credit: US Coast Guard

Topics: News, US News, Drugs