Biggest-ever Colombian narco sub intercepted

BOGOTA: The largest Colombian “narco sub” ever recorded -- some 30 meters long and three meters wide -- has been decommissioned in the Pacific, with three tons of cocaine found on board, the country´s navy reported on Friday.

The semi-submersible vessel was intercepted on Tuesday on its way to Central America, one of the most common routes for drug smuggling to the United States, the world´s largest consumer of Colombian cocaine.

The detained crew -- aged 45, 54 and 63 -- are all Colombians and claimed to have been “forced by a drug trafficking organization” to take the sub to Central America, the navy said in a statement.

In three decades, the Colombian navy has seized 228 such drug-laden semi-submersibles, which are never fully underwater but used by traffickers to elude detection by coast guard and other authorities.