Mexico can't revel in drug submarine's capture

MEXICO CITY — The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine.

The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels believed to contain cocaine, possibly tons. Its disheveled crew of four emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, saying they had shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death.

Mexico's military confirmed Thursday that the men are Colombian but offered little new information on its capture of the mini-sub off the southern coast a day earlier.

Capt. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican navy, said authorities were hauling the "very well-constructed" vessel to shore and had yet to weigh the contraband, which he said likely amounted to "tons."

The unusual episode suggests that the government, already struggling against drug traffickers by land and air, faces a vexing new undersea front.

Colombian drug suppliers have increasingly tried to use small, semi-submersible craft to smuggle their illicit cargo north toward their eventual markets, mainly in the United States. Colombian forces and the U.S. Coast Guard have seized more than a dozen such boats, a handful while en route to Mexico and Central America, during the past two and a half years.

U.S. officials say the craft are being used more often because they are more difficult to detect by radar. The seizures represent a fraction of the 40 or so that have been spotted since 2007, according to U.S. authorities.

"When they think they might be caught, the crews tend to scuttle them," said Jose Ruiz, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which monitors drug activities. "They get out of them, sink them, and the drugs go to the bottom of the ocean so they can't be recovered for evidence."

Wednesday's seizure of the olive-green, surfboard-shaped vessel in the Pacific Ocean about 125 miles from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, was the first off the coast of Mexico, authorities said.

The seizure provided images of speeding Navy patrol boats and adrenaline-charged commandos perched atop the vessel — a showy victory for President Felipe Calderón and his 18-month-old crackdown against drug trafficking gangs.

That offensive has sent 45,000 federal troops and police agents into the streets along the U.S. border and other key drug-smuggling corridors. Drug gangs have ratcheted up their capabilities by adding grenades and bazookas to their arsenals and, authorities say, outfitting cars with bombs for possible use against government forces.

Now authorities apparently face a maritime weapon as smuggling gangs seek ways to move their product to the U.S.

Unlike numerous Latin American nations, Mexico does not have a submarine force because it was considered expensive and unnecessary.

In a statement, the Mexican navy said its forces moved in on the vessel after receiving intelligence from "national and international agencies."

The crew members, interviewed by Mexican media on land as they were led into custody Wednesday, said they left the port city of Buenaventura, on Colombia's Pacific coast, seven days earlier. If so, they had traveled at least 1,300 miles before their capture.

The men, ranging in age from their 20s to late 50s, said they were fishermen who had been kidnapped and forced to make the journey by men who threatened their families. The sailors said that they were unaware of the contents or destination of the craft, which they said was guided by a satellite navigation system. The suspects said they were to be paid $500 each.