Someone blew up a narco-sub in the middle of the ocean

The U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Navy caught a smuggler’s narco-sub and blew it up in international waters of the Pacific Ocean; The Mob Reporter here with an inside look at a huge drug interdiction mission. Let me tell you about it.

A three-month deployment of two Royal Canadian Navy coastal defence vessels working with the United States Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy during counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific just ended. Their mission is sort of the modern version of hunting pirates.

Here’s what happened. In February, at the start of the mission, a Canadian Air Force long-range patrol aircraft, a CP-140 Aurora, spotted a fishing boat and helped guide the U.S. Coast Guard to it, where they seized 860 kilos of coke.

On March 21, 2021, a US Navy P-3 maritime patrol aircraft spotted a Go-Fast boat in the eastern Pacific and radioed the HMCS Brandon, which changed course and sped up to intercept. The Canadian sailors launched two rigid hull inflatable boats with members of the U.S. Coast Guard’s law enforcement team on board. One headed to collect the jettisoned cargo while the other headed for the speedboat. A U.S Coast Guard helicopter fired warning shots across the bow of the fleeing boat and then sank rounds into its motors to force it to stop. Three suspected smugglers were detained along with 870 kilos of coke.

Two days later, March 23, 2021, the HMCS Saskatoon was tipped to a target by the US Navy’s P-3. They gave chase to the narco-sub. Again, two inflatable speedboats were launched. They carried out what’s called a right-of-visit, which is a boarding and inspection. Four suspected smugglers were detained along with 250 kilos of cocaine. The free-floating narco-sub was declared a hazard to navigation and international maritime standard calls for any vessel to try to clear it. The sailors turned to C4 explosives. Other seizures took place in April.

There is a reason why each Canadian Navy ship on this mission has a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement team onboard. The Canadian sailors do an interception, but the U.S. teams do the official boarding and inspection of each boat or sub they snag.

The mission for the two Canadian Navy ships ended this week and are now heading home. The cat and mouse carry on. Thanks for watching.

USA - MR.