>>167019, >>167020, >>167021, >>167022

Floating Coffins
Once a narco sub is spotted, authorities often attempt to stop the vessel and bring its crew into custody. Boarding suspected subs is notoriously dangerous, and most vessels are built with a plug so they can be quickly scuttled by traffickers when the drug shipment reaches its destination, destroying the record of the journey.
Traffickers also occasionally scuttle narco subs during interdiction attempts, though changes in US and Colombian law have made it a crime to be spotted onboard unflagged vessels — regardless of whether authorities seize drugs or recover the craft — with the hope of detaining more skilled narco sub crews and reducing the incentive to destroy evidence.
Despite the changes, grizzly incidents still occur. In February 2025, an officer for the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard drowned while searching a narco sub at sea when traffickers removed the plug after authorities stopped the vessel.
Narco subs have also occasionally killed their crew. For example, in 2023, Colombian authorities found a “ghost vessel” traversing the Pacific with the corpses of two crew killed from the inhalation of fumes from the diesel engine.
The crew of narco submarines refer to the vessels as “coffins.”

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https://insightcrime.org/news/under-radar-what-hundreds-ofnarco-sub-seizures-tell-us-about-global-cocaine-routes/