Officers looking for missing fishermen instead find "narco sub" loaded with 4 tons of cocaine

Authorities on a search-and-rescue mission for two missing fishermen off the Pacific coast of Colombia instead found a semi-submersible vessel loaded with more than four tons of cocaine, officials said Wednesday. The so-called "narco sub" was intercepted during a joint operation by the Colombian and Ecuadorian navies and the Colombian Air Force, the Colombian Navy said in a news release.

Officers were conducting the search-and-rescue operation for the fishermen off the southwest coast of Colombia when they detected a suspicious vessel near the border with Ecuador. Sailors with the Colombian Navy boarded the 50-foot-long semi-submersible and discovered 205 packages "of different sizes and shapes," which authorities said ended up testing positive for cocaine.

The navy released images of the seizure as well as video showing officers unloading bundles of the alleged narcotics.