Homemade Drug Sub Captured

Tipped off by three PVC pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3.3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Four men were arrested after they were found traveling inside the 49-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes.

The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles off Costa Rica's coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said in a news release Sunday. It moved at about 7 miles per hour and was about 6 feet below the surface.

"This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said.

U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said.

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

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elaine Samson said the men are believed to have traveled from Colombia. Colombia's nearest Pacific coast town is some 750 miles away from where their makeshift vessel was seized.

The submarine, which was taken to a Costa Rican Coast Guard station, had several tanks of fuel and a bailer to keep out water, the Security Ministry said.

In March, the Colombian navy seized a 60-foot long, fiberglass submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean headed for Central America and on to the United States. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized during the operation, but no narcotics were found.

Colombian authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has become the top method of transport in recent years, as radar systems have made it extremely difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes without being detected.

So far this year, Costa Rican have seized 20 tons of cocaine, including the country's biggest seizure to date — 9 tons found on a boat in October.