US Coast guard have detained a homemade submarine loaded with 5.5 tons of cocaine off the cost of Guatemala on Thursday, US media reported.

The bales of cocaine are worth at least USD 350 M.

"It was a semi-submersible vessel that floated just underneath the surface of the water," said Kevin Ness, a spokesman for the US Coast Guard in Alameda, California.

The craft was about 50 feet long and "painted blue to hide it under water," he told media.

Ness said the drug traffickers sank the vessel before US Coast Guard officials could get there. Officials detained four men found floating in the water along with 11 bales of cocaine.

"The rest is now at the bottom of the sea," said Ness.

About 75 percent of cocaine processed in Colombia passes through Central America on its way to the United States and smugglers keep coming up with sophisticated tricks to try to avoid getting caught.

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