Officers of the National Coast Guard Service in Costa Rica literally gave the shirts off their backs to stop sinking of evidence by four Colombian men charged with cocaine smuggling. According to a press release by the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP), the suspects tried to scuttle a 42 foot powerboat with 100 kilos of cocaine by removing special drain plugs from the inner hull, which the officers plugged using their shirts.

The MSP explained that a United States aircraft on drug interdiction patrol over Panama spotted the boat earlier this week as it traveled in a northerly direction. The air crew initiated pursuit and alerted MSP personnel in Costa Rica tasked with working with U.S. forces as part of the Joint Patrol Agreement.

Two small boats from the Coast Guard station in Golfito got underway in the evening to intercept the suspicious vessel as aircraft from the Air Surveillance Service monitored the situation from above. At 11:39 p.m., the Coast Guard crews furtively approached their target about 15 miles off Playa Sirena in the Osa Peninsula.

The suspects turned their vessel in the direction of the Coast Guard boats and rammed one of them, although they only managed to splash the officers with salt water. Then they started throwing bales of cocaine overboard as they removed the drain plugs in an effort to scuttle the vessel, which was equipped with expensive radio and navigation electronics and plenty of fuel that could have contaminated the ocean has it sunk.

The crew of the Safeboat 33-2 immediately reacted to the scuttle attempt by jumping in the ocean and improvising plugs with their utility uniform shirts; alas, the electronics of the boat were partially submerged and permanently damaged. The four alleged cocaine cowboys were taken into custody and scheduled to face prosecutors in court.