Honduras finds 13.8 tons of cocaine on submarine
Honduran anti-narcotics personnel prepare packs with cocaine to be incinerated on August 3, 2010, in Tegucigalpa.
Authorities in Honduras reportedly recovered an additional 7.3 tons of cocaine from a U.S. bound narco-sub Friday, bringing the total amount of cocaine seized in the past few days to 13.8 tons.
Authorities have been unloading drugs from the submarine-like vessel, which is off Honduras's Caribbean coast, since Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.
The cocaine is so far worth about $500 million.
A U.S. Coast Guard patrol found the ship Wednesday off the coast of the province of Gracias a Dios near the Nicaraguan border. It detained five crew members.
The crew tried to sink the ship when they were intercepted, causing the vessel to be submerged about 50 feet in the water, BBC reports.
Authorities reportedly said the vessel originated in Colombia, and the cargo was on its way to the United States.
Traffickers sending drugs to the United States often use a route through Honduras.
Three weeks ago, another vessel carrying cocaine was intercepted in the Caribbean. Panama's navy seized three tons of liquid cocaine July 8, InSight Crime reported.