A U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement team aboard the USS McInerney seized a semi-submersible vessel Saturday that was hauling 7 tons of cocaine about 350 miles west of Guatemala in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard said yesterday.

The Coast Guard arrested four suspected smugglers before they managed to scuttle the vessel.

"This was the most dangerous operation of my career," said Lt. j.g. Todd Bagetis, officer in charge of the Coast Guard law enforcement team.

Navy aircraft spotted the 59-foot steel and fiberglass self-propelled semi-submersible craft. The USS McInerney launched two small boats after being guided to a position near the suspect vessel.

Coast Guard personnel, under the cover of darkness, boarded the vessel from the McInerney's small boats, surprising the smugglers.

When the smugglers realized they had been boarded, they reversed the engines at a high speed in an attempt to throw the boarding party overboard.

The smugglers also tried to scuttle the vessel but complied with orders from the boarding party to close the valves that were flooding the vessel.

Boardings of such semi-submersible vessels are hazardous because when loaded, the surface of the deck is almost flush with the water and they sink quickly if smugglers open scuttling valves to flood the craft.

The craft seized Saturday is capable of traveling from South America to San Diego without stopping for fuel or other supplies.

The Coast Guard said the vessel was equipped with state-of-the-art navigation and communication equipment.