• U.S. recovers $180 million in cocaine from sunken submarine

    By Rich Shulman

     An underwater drug bust. What's next?

    "This is a once-in-a-career thing that happens," said Lieutenant Commander Peter Niles, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Oak, whose crew located the sunken vessel.

      Full story.

    See Mark Potter's Nightly News report about secret subs at the bottom of this post.

    Hans Deryk / Reuters

    A crew member from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oak counts packaged bales of 15,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $180 million unloaded at Base Support Unit Miami August 2. The haul was recovered from a self-propelled submersible vessel in the western Caribbean Sea July 13, 2010 after being spotted by U.S. Coast Guard patrol.

    U.S. Coast Guard / Getty Images

    In this handout provided by U.S. Coast Guard, the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca interdicts a drug smuggling, self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel carrying cocaine on an unspecified date in the western Caribbean Sea. It was the first interdiction of an SPSS in the Caribbean.

    Dec. 28: Learn more about the secret subs examined by Mark Potter.