Cocaine submarine captured

Reported here:

U.S. Coast Guards have seized a submarine carrying 3.5 tons of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica and arrested three Colombians on board, the Costa Rican Coast Guard said on Sunday.

The submarine appeared to be a makeshift vessel unlike military submarines or those used by oceanographers. It could only submerge 6 feet under water, Costa Rican Coast Guard spokesman Jose Antonio Fallas told Reuters.

The 45-foot-long vessel was found last Wednesday near the remote Coco Island, southwest of the Central American mainland, and had traveled hundreds of miles from Colombia on its way to the United States.

UPDATE: More info here:

Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities have seized a homemade submarine packed with 2.7 tonnes of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Four men were inside the 15-metre wood and fibreglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 10 kilometres an hour, just two metres beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.

The submarine was spotted Friday, 165 kilometres off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.

Interesting crew, too, consisting of

Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.

UPDATE2: Phot of the sub here.