It was like a scene straight out of “Narcos.”
The Colombian Navy stumbled upon a chilling sight after seizing a ghost submarine and finding two dead bodies — together with greater than $87.7 million value of cocaine aboard.
Officials estimated that there was greater than 2.6 tons of cocaine on the 49-foot-long vessel found floating within the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.
Two survivors were also positioned and in need of life-saving medical attention.
“Once the illegal device was positioned, military personnel found two individuals ill conditions on the surface of the vessel,” Colombia’s Ministry of National Defense said in a press release.
“Apparently, there was an accident contained in the semi-submersible as a consequence of the generation of toxic gasses from the fuel,” the statement continued.
“The 2 men were treated and transported to a close-by vessel, where they got the vital medical attention to safeguard their lives.”
Each the 2 survivors — in addition to the corpses and the coke haul — were dropped at the municipality of Tumaco, “where they were presented to the Technical Investigation Corps of the Attorney General’s Office,” the statement concluded.
The Colombian government touted the Navy’s efforts in stopping the drugs from being trafficked, estimating that it kept greater than six million doses off the illegal market.
Officials also put out a video of the moment the officers boarded the partially submerged vessel and laid out the handfuls of bricks of cocaine found inside.
The submarine was considered one of three recently seized by the federal government that allegedly belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), local media outlets reported.
FARC, the Marxist guerilla group that attempted to overthrow Colombia’s government between 1964 and 2017, was involved in drug trafficking, kidnappings, and other criminal activities to finance their work.
The group worked to develop narco-submarines, vessels that just like the one found on Sunday, travel partially submerged to avoid radar detection and other surveillance equipment.
A 2016 evaluation of the submarines found that despite being constructed in distant areas within the jungle, the vessels were sophisticated enough to change into fully submersible and transport greater than 10 tons of medicine to illegal markets in Central America.
Following the bust on Sunday, Colombia’s Ministry of National Defense said it was committed to cracking down on any Narco vessels in its country.
“The Colombian Navy will proceed deploying all its capabilities to counter the scourge of drug trafficking structures that commit crimes within the Colombian Pacific,” the agency said.
