This is the end of the line moment when troops and police seize a narco-sub loaded with USD 50 million of cocaine being trafficked from South America to Europe.
Video footage of the raid shows masked Ecuadorian maritime police boarding the sub with support from elite marines from the Colombian Navy.
After the sub was towed 32 miles to a dock near Esmeraldas in northwest Ecuador police lined up row after row of packages of the drug in the quayside.
The sub was expected to try to sneak across the Atlantic to drop its deadly cargo in northern Spain.
Officers put three seized suspects on show in handcuffs before leading them away for questioning. Later naming them to local media only as Arlin G., Jose C. and Víctor O.
The police said they seized 161 parcels of the Class A drug, weighing a total of 3.2 tonnes and with a street value of USD 50 million (GBP 39.3 million).
Movie Style Chase Of Narco Boat In Southern Spain
The makeshift semisubmersible craft was equipped with four 75 bhp Yamaha engines, according to local media.
Newsflash obtained a statement from the Armed Forces of Ecuador on 21st January saying that the raid was a “hard blow to the criminal economy”.
They said that the cargo that was seized was cocaine hydrochloride and that the three suspects were “foreigners”.
Ecuador has been facing unprecedented crime waves in recent weeks.
The government declared war on crime gangs after armed men took hostages in a TV station during a live broadcast.
Police have since arrested 70 people who tried to take over a hospital.
