The spectacular capture of a narcosubmarino loaded with more than seven tons of cocaine

The scene seems drawn from an action movie.

A flotilla of the US Coast Guard surrounds a submarine that crosses the international waters of the Pacific.

In the video, one of the officers shouts: "Stop your boat!" (in Spanish), boarding the submersible.

Then, one of the officers is seen above the submarine while he squeezes the hatches.

Finally, one of the team members opens the door and raises his hands in surrender.

There ends the video of an operation in which the authorities claim to have seized 7.7 tons of cocaine.

The five submersible crew members were made available to the Drug Control Administration (DEA).

Millionaire

The events occurred on June 18 and the video was released on July 11 by the Coast Guard.

The operation took place in international waters hundreds of kilometers off the coast of Colombia and Ecuador, Coast Guard spokesman Stephen Brickey said.

Brickey, however, did not give details of the boat's crew.

"It's very satisfying," Captain Jim Estramonte, commander of the Coast Guard Munro ship, told ABC.

"This is the largest seizure of the Coast Guard since 2015."

The video was released as part of the presentation of the results of 14 interceptions of ships off the coast of Mexico, Central America and South America.

The transactions took place between May and July 2019.

A total of 17.6 tonnes of cocaine and 423 kilograms of marijuana were seized, valued at $ 569 million.

James Spero, special agent of the US Department of Immigration and Customs, told CBS that even though these ships are sailing in international waters, the authorities may inspect them because "they do not wield the flag of any country".

On July 11, in San Diego, California, US Vice President Mike Pence congratulated the Coast Guard for these seizures.

Hard to detect

The US Coast Guard calls these boats "self-propelled semi-submersible".

"They are quite rare to find, but they are becoming more and more popular," says Brickey.

"It takes a lot of money from the cartels to make them, but it is usually worth it because they are very hard to detect."

Brickey adds that these semi-submersibles are usually painted blue to melt in the water and that they can normally be detected only with the help of an aircraft, as this was the case with the video submarine.

These submarines are designed to sink and quickly destroy evidence, which the suspects are not afraid to do, because Brickey says they know the coastguards will not allow them to drown.

That's why these are operations that are done in "1 or 2 minutes," says Brickey.

IN ADDITION