The fact that drug cartels have almost unlimited financial resources allows them to find new ways of smuggling narcotics into their main markets.
Since the United States is the No. 1 market worldwide for drugs, it goes without saying that traffickers go to great lengths to get their merchandise into the country. They use long tunnels not just to escape from prison, like drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán recently did, but mostly to smuggle drugs across the Mexican-US border.
But did you know they also use submarines as a means of transportation?
On July 19, the US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton ship detected a self-propelled semi-submersible submarine in international waters off the coast of Central America. When the crew descended onto the 40-foot (12.2-meters) vessel, they found more than 6 tons of narcotic bales, worth about $181 million (€165 million).
The operation was filmed by the 94th Airlift Wing and you can watch it below.