US stops vessel carrying $180M worth of cocaine

[August 02, 2011]  MIAMI (AP) -- The U.S. Coast Guard says its crews helped stop a submarine-like craft filled with $180 million of cocaine in the western Caribbean.

The Coast Guard said Monday that a cutter found the semi-submersible craft July 13 off the coast of Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. Officials say it was found with the help of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection airplane.

The watercraft sank, but it was found Tuesday after several searches by the Coast Guard, FBI dive teams and the Honduran Navy. An FBI dive team recovered nearly 7.5 tons of cocaine, which were turned over to U.S. law enforcement.

Similar crafts regularly smuggle drugs along Central America's Pacific Coast, though U.S. and Honduran authorities said this was the first time such a vessel was intercepted in Caribbean waters.

[Associated Press]

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