Mexican Navy Seizes Semi-Submersible Carrying Nearly 4 Tons of Cocaine In Pacific Smuggling Bust

On Thursday, the Mexican Navy announced it had intercepted a semi-submersible smuggling craft loaded with close to four tons of cocaine. The seizure of 179 separate drug packages marks the latest major success in Mexico’s ongoing effort to disrupt maritime smuggling of illegal substances across the Pacific Ocean — an issue the United States has also addressed through a series of lethal strikes in the Caribbean targeting vessels suspected of carrying drugs.

Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s secretary of security, shared the update in a post on X, confirming the interception of the vessel — commonly known as a “narco-submarine” — occurred in Mexican territorial waters near Manzanillo, in the state of Colima. Three people have been arrested on suspicion of ties to the drug shipment.

Mexico’s navy (officially Semar) reports the operation involved one ocean patrol vessel, two fixed-wing aircraft, two rotary-wing aircraft, and two high-speed interceptor boats. The mission also received intelligence support from U.S. Northern Command and the Joint Interagency Task Force, which helped teams locate the target craft at sea.

Harfuch emphasized that this bust adds to a wave of other drug seizures carried out over the past week, bringing the total amount of cocaine confiscated in that period to roughly 10 tons. According to the secretary, “This operation delivers a direct, multimillion-dollar blow to the financial infrastructure of organized crime, keeping millions of doses of illegal drugs off the streets and protecting the safety of Mexican families.”

Semar has been monitoring a transnational smuggling network that uses the routes known as La Gorgona and El Desierto to move narcotics and other illegal goods from Ecuador and Colombia since at least last year. The smuggling route includes key strategic stopover points including the Galápagos Islands and Clipperton Island, before shipments reach landing sites on Mexican shores such as Punta Tejupán in Michoacán. An investigation published by N+ Focus confirms the final destination for these shipments is the U.S. consumer market.

To evade radar detection and standard maritime surveillance systems, criminal organizations build and deploy speedboats, fully submersible submarines, and semi-submersible craft, most often homemade from fiberglass. Between 2023 and early 2025, Semar’s monitoring and enforcement operations have resulted in the seizure of more than 111 tons of cocaine, 223 unregistered smuggling vessels, and the arrest of 476 suspected traffickers of Ecuadorian, Mexican, Colombian, and Central American nationalities.

The U.S. government has pressured Mexico to intensify its crackdown on drug trafficking. Last year, the illegal smuggling of synthetic drugs like fentanyl was used by the Trump administration as justification to impose new tariffs on Mexican imports.

Following that pressure, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced a far tougher strategy targeting drug cartels, which includes increased surveillance of both maritime smuggling routes and land borders, as well as the extradition of dozens of people convicted of drug trafficking offenses to the United States.

For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a campaign of direct confrontation against organized crime, even carrying out operations in international waters. According to The New York Times, Trump instructed the Pentagon to deploy military assets against Latin American cartels designated as terrorist organizations, marking the most aggressive policy his administration has adopted on this issue.

Trump’s executive order was designed to establish a legal foundation for carrying out both maritime and land military operations on foreign territory, representing a major shift in U.S. security policy. The new policy shifts traditional law enforcement functions to the military, which were previously reserved for domestic law enforcement agencies.

This strategy led to the first U.S. strike on a vessel the Trump administration claims was transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States. The incident took place on September 2 in international waters of the southern Caribbean Sea, and left 11 people dead, all allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua gang. Dozens of similar strikes have been documented in the Caribbean and Pacific since that attack, with an estimated total death toll of roughly 145 people.

This story was originally published by WIRED en Español and adapted from the original Spanish version.