CBS News Inaccurately Claims Mexican Navy Seized Drugs from ‘Narco-Submarine’

CBS News inaccurately reported that the Mexican Navy seized 3.6 tons of cocaine from a “narco sub.” The Government of Mexico reports the drugs were found on a twin-engine “Go Fast” type vessel.

CBS News reported on Wednesday that the Mexican Navy seized “3.6 tons (about 8,000 pounds) of cocaine aboard a “narco sub” off the Pacific coast, which was spotted earlier this week about 153 miles off the resort of Acapulco.”

CBS went on to say, “The craft, of a type known as “go-fast boats,” was powered by two outboard motors and appeared to be a low-profile, semi-submersible craft — commonly known as a “narco sub” — designed to make detection more difficult.”

The article links to a press release by the Mexican government. The statement does not mention a “narco sub.”

An English translation of the Mexican press statement reveals:

The Secretariat of the Navy, through the Mexican Navy acting as the Coast Guard, reports that, in recent days, naval personnel managed to seize approximately 3,600 (three thousand six hundred) kilograms of alleged cocaine, as well as the arrest of nine alleged lawbreakers, approximately 133 nautical miles (246,316 kilometers) southeast of Acapulco, Guerrero.

These actions were derived from aerial and maritime surveillance tours carried out by elements of this Institution, in which a Mexican Navy aircraft sighted a Go Fast type vessel with two outboard motors, with nine crew members on board, who were transporting 102 black packages, which contained brick-shaped packages, the interior of which contained white powder with characteristics similar to cocaine.

For the above reasons, naval personnel carried out the seizure of the aforementioned vessel, the alleged drug vessel and the alleged offenders of the law, in strict compliance with human rights, highlighting that six of them are of foreign nationality, whose human rights and physical integrity were respected.

After that, the seized goods and the alleged offenders of the law were loaded onto a Mexican Navy ship to be taken to land and made available to the competent authorities to open the corresponding investigation file.

In this way, the Navy, through the Mexican Navy, works to inhibit criminal activity by means of maritime, aerial and land surveillance operations in order to guarantee and maintain the rule of law at sea.

The Mexican Navy posted a video on X showing the actual boat in the alleged drug interdiction.

In 2020, Forbes magazine said the “media tends to focus on so-called ‘narco submarines.’” The article also references the “Go-Fast” narco boats. It states:

A working definition of a go-fast is a power boat which primarily employs speed to evade capture. By contrast narco submarines use their low profile to avoid detection. So it is speed versus stealth.

…

The main visible distinction (of Go-Fast vessels) from narco submarines is that they most often have an open cockpit. This would not work if they were running semi-submerged like a narco sub.

Again, the Mexican Government’s statement does not mention “narco sub” or the vessel being semi-submersible, as described by CBS News.