Spanish police refloat homemade drug semi-submersible

MADRID (AP) — Civil Guard police in northwestern Spain have refloated a homemade semi-submersible vessel they suspect may have been used to transport cocaine. The 16-meter (52-foot) fiberglass vessel was hauled to the surface Tuesday a day after it was spotted a kilometer (half a mile) off the coast in the Arousa estuary. It will be towed to a nearby port where police will investigate its contents. A government official says initial checks show no drugs on board. A similar vessel with three metric tons of cocaine was found in another estuary in 2019. Such drug-smuggling vessels have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean. They lie low in the water to escape detection and rarely are able to fully submerge.