Mexico’s Naval Force declared on Thursday that it had intercepted a semi-submersible craft laden with approximately four metric tons of cocaine. This confiscation of 179 parcels of the narcotic marks the newest achievement in a campaign to curtail oceanic conveyance of unlawful goods throughout the Pacific waters—a challenge likewise being tackled by the United States via a sequence of lethal assaults in the Caribbean targeting crafts believed to be transporting narcotics.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s head of security, disclosed in a communication on X that the apprehension of the craft—dubbed a “narco-submarine”—was carried out within Mexican territorial waters close to Manzanillo, in the state of Colima. Three individuals have been detained due to alleged connections with the consignment.
Semar, Mexico’s naval branch, indicated that the mission utilized an offshore patrol craft, a pair of fixed-wing planes, two helicopters, and a couple of interceptor vessels. Furthermore, it gained backing from US Northern Command and the Joint Interagency Task Force, who furnished crucial data for pinpointing the objective in maritime zones.
Harfuch underscored that this operation complements previous confiscations carried out over the preceding week, culminating in the seizure of around 10 metric tons of cocaine. As stated by the minister, “this delivers a significant and multi-million-dollar impact against the economic frameworks of criminal syndicates, hindering countless doses from circulating publicly and safeguarding the well-being of Mexican households.”
For at least the past year, Semar has been observing an international illicit network that employs the pathways designated as La Gorgona and El Desierto for conveying illicit drugs and other contraband originating from Ecuador and Colombia. This itinerary encompasses key locations such as the Galápagos Islands and Clipperton Island prior to arriving at Mexican coastlines, specifically Punta Tejupán in Michoacán. As per a probe released by N+ Focus, the ultimate market for these consignments is the U.S.
Delinquent syndicates utilize swift boats, submersibles, and semi-submersible crafts, frequently crafted from fiberglass materials in an artisanal manner, to elude detection by radar and sea monitoring setups. From 2023 through the beginning of 2025, observation and policing activities carried out by Semar led to the confiscation of over 111 metric tons of cocaine, 223 unlawful sea crafts, and the apprehension of 476 alleged smugglers hailing from Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, and Central America.
The American administration has urged Mexico to escalate its combat against illicit drug commerce. In the previous year, the illicit trade of manufactured drugs such as fentanyl served as a rationale for the Trump administration to levy duties on goods from Mexico.
Subsequently, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has unveiled a more stringent approach to combat criminal syndicates, encompassing enhanced monitoring of sea lanes and boundaries, along with the transfer to the United States of numerous individuals found guilty of narcotics smuggling charges.
Meanwhile, American President Donald Trump initiated an offensive of direct engagement with criminal networks, extending even into international maritime zones. As reported by The New York Times, Trump directed the Pentagon to deploy military resources against Latin American criminal groups labeled as terror entities, marking his administration’s most forceful policy in this domain.
Trump’s executive order sought to create a legal foundation for executing both naval and terrestrial military actions within external jurisdictions, signifying a notable change in American security doctrine by delegating to the armed forces duties typically allocated to police organizations.
This directive resulted in the initial U.S. strike against a craft which, as per the Trump government, was conveying narcotics from Venezuela towards America. The event took place on September 2 in the global waters of the southern Caribbean and caused the demise of 11 individuals, purportedly connected to the Tren de Aragua syndicate. Subsequently, scores of comparable assaults have been documented across the Caribbean and Pacific regions, with a projected casualty count of around 145 individuals.
This report first surfaced in WIRED en Español and was rendered from Spanish.
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