A drug submarine carrying 4 tons of cocaine was seized by the Mexican Navy

Mexican Navy On Thursday, the Moroccan authorities announced the seizure of a semi-submersible ship carrying about four tons of cocaine. The seizure of 179 packages of drugs is the latest result in an effort to curb the maritime trade of illicit substances across the Pacific – an issue the United States is also addressing through a series of deadly attacks in the Caribbean against ships suspected of carrying drugs.

Omar García Harfush, Mexico’s security minister, reported in a post on X that the interception of the vessel — known as a “narco submarine” — occurred in Mexican waters near Manzanillo, in Colima state. Three people were arrested on suspicion of being connected to the shipment.

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

Harfouche confirmed that this measure is in addition to other seizures made during the past week, which resulted in the confiscation of approximately 10 tons of cocaine. According to the minister, “This represents a direct multi-million dollar hit to the financial structures of organized crime, preventing millions of doses from reaching the streets and protecting the safety of Mexican families.”

Since at least the past year, Simar has been monitoring a transnational network that uses routes known as La Gorgona and El Deserto to transport drugs 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 shores, including Punta Tejupan in Michoacán. According to an investigation published by N+ Focus, the final destination of these shipments is the American market.

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

The US government is pressuring Mexico to intensify its war against drug trafficking. Last year, the Trump administration used the trafficking of synthetic drugs like fentanyl as justification for imposing tariffs on Mexican imports.

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

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

Trump’s decree aims to create a legal basis for conducting naval and land military operations in foreign territories, representing a major shift in US security policy by assigning military tasks traditionally assigned to law enforcement agencies.

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

This story originally appeared in WIRED en Español and was translated from Spanish.