By ILDEFONSO ORTIZ and BRANDON DARBY
Four drug traffickers from Colombia used a makeshift submarine to move cocaine into Mexican waters this week.
The seizure took place near the beach resort area of Huatulco, Oaxaca, when military forces working coast guard operations intercepted the makeshift submarine, the Mexican Navy revealed. A military surveillance aircraft spotted the submarine and coordinated the capture.
Authorities arrested four men identified only as Colombian nationals. Sailors seized the boat and 106 bundles of cocaine. A total weight for the cocaine remains undisclosed. Mexicoâs Navy claimed the four suspected drug runners and their equipment would be turned over to the Oaxaca Attorney Generalâs Office for criminal handling.
Mexicoâs southern beaches are commonly used by South American drug traffickers to smuggle large quantities of cocaineâtypically bound for the U.S. border. In many cases, particularly in MichoacĂĄn and Jalisco, authorities at the local, state and even federal level are complicit in the smuggling operations.