Guys. This is serious. Some drug king pin is going to be real upset right about now, shooting off his pistols and shit.

After a U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft spotted something suspicious in the water 330km south of Mexico, they notified the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton crew in Alameda, California. The Stratton dudes then sent their boarding crew to the location who happened to find some cocaine being transported in a home-made, self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel.

These types of vessels have become a Columbian favourite, with smugglers having used them for over a decade. The only way to really find them is to spot the exhaust pipe and cockpit – which makes it quite difficult.

Casually, the amount of cocaine that the vessel was carrying was about 7 300kg with a street value of R2.5bn. Nice.

But, in an effort to stabilise the vessel for towing, the Stratton dudes left around 2 000kg of the white powder in the boat, which then sank. It has still been considered the biggest drug bust in Coast Guard history.

The bust went down on 18 July, but the news was only released this week due to the need of approval by various agencies within the Eastern Pacific. I wonder if LA’s snowboarders have been left a little dry.

[source: mashable]