CBP team from Jacksonville nails drug sub
While customs officials have been thwarting drug smuggling in containers and other marine equipment for many years, a Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine enforcement team based out of Jacksonville notched an unusual victory against smuggling with an interdiction against a semi-submerged vessel allegedly carrying some five metric tons of cocaine.
A CBP P-3 Orion aircraft out of Jacksonville, working with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel, described as being designed to avoid detection, in the Eastern Pacific last Sunday, according to a CBP report issued Wednesday. Four suspected smuggler were taken into custody, the CBP said.
The air team from Jacksonville spotted the vessel and directed a Navy ship to the scene. When the Navy arrived, the suspects scuttled the vessel. But authorities immediately recovered 11 cocaine bales.
CBP said the entire shipment would have had a street value of just over $350 million.
CBP team from Jacksonville nails drug sub
