MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say that they have intercepted another submarine suspected of transporting drugs to Europe from South America and arrested four Colombian nationals who were crewing the vessel.
Police rescued the occupants after they had scuttled the 20-meter (65-foot) long narco-submarine 518 kilometers (312 miles) west of Cadiz on Tuesday, when it was heading for the mainland.
Due to the characteristics of the boat and the crew’s behavior, authorities believed that it transported cocaine, the Civil Guard said in a statement on Wednesday.
The crew surfaced safely while the submarine flooded and sank with its cargo, the statement added.
The vessel is similar to those intercepted by authorities in previous operations in northwestern Spain in 2019 — when three metric tons of cocaine were confiscated —- and last year.
Similar vessels have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, especially near Central and South America. They usually sail underwater at shallow depths and are rarely able to submerge.