‘Narco-Submarine’ Carrying 4 Tons of Cocaine Captured by Mexico’s Navy

The Mexican Navy announced Thursday that it had seized a semi-submersible ship carrying nearly four tons of cocaine. The seizure of 179 drug packages is the latest result of an effort to curb maritime trafficking of illicit substances across the Pacific Ocean – a problem also addressed by the United States through a series of deadly attacks in the Caribbean on ships suspected of transporting drugs.

Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s security secretary, reported in a post on Three people were arrested for alleged links to the shipment.

The Mexican Navy (Semar) said the operation involved an ocean patrol ship, two fixed-wing aircraft, two rotary-wing aircraft and two interceptor boats. It also received support from U.S. Northern Command and the Joint Interagency Task Force, which provided intelligence to locate the target at sea.

Harfuch pointed out that this action is in addition to other seizures made over the past week, which resulted in the confiscation of approximately 10 tons of cocaine. According to the secretary, “this represents a direct, multimillion-dollar blow to the financial structures of organized crime, preventing millions of doses from reaching the streets and protecting the safety of Mexican families.”

For at least the last year, Semar has monitored a transnational network that uses the routes known as La Gorgona and El Desierto to transport narcotics and other illicit goods from Ecuador and Colombia. The route includes strategic points such as the Galapagos Islands and Clipperton Island before reaching the Mexican coast, including Punta Tejupán in Michoacán. According to a survey published by N+ Focus, the final destination of these shipments is the American market.

Criminal organizations use speedboats, submarines and semi-submersibles, often made of fiberglass, to evade radar and maritime surveillance systems. Between 2023 and early 2025, surveillance and law enforcement operations carried out by Semar resulted in the seizure of more than 111 tons of cocaine, 223 illegal maritime vessels and the arrest of 476 suspected traffickers of Ecuadorian, Mexican, Colombian and Central American nationalities.

The U.S. government has been pressuring Mexico to step up its fight against drug trafficking. Last year, trafficking in synthetic drugs like fentanyl was used by the Trump administration to justify imposing tariffs on Mexican imports.

Since then, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced a tougher strategy against cartels, which includes increased surveillance of shipping routes and borders, as well as the extradition to the United States of dozens of people convicted of drug trafficking.

For his part, US President Donald Trump has launched a campaign of direct confrontation against organized crime, even in international waters. According to the New York Times, Trump has asked the Pentagon to use military means against Latin American cartels designated as terrorist organizations, representing his administration’s most aggressive strategy in this area.

Trump’s executive order sought to establish a legal basis for conducting maritime and land military operations in foreign territory, marking a significant shift in U.S. security policy by assigning to the military functions traditionally reserved for law enforcement.

The policy led to the first U.S. attack on a ship that the Trump administration said was transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States. This incident occurred on September 2 in international waters in the southern Caribbean Sea and left 11 people dead, allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua gang. Since then, dozens of similar attacks have been recorded across the Caribbean and Pacific, leaving an estimated death toll of around 145 people.

This story originally appeared in WIRED in Spanish and has been translated from Spanish.