One time pads are really inconvenient and hard to get right. That's why they are almost never used in practice, despite being theoretically perfect.
First, you need to generate large amounts of unbiased, true random data. If it is not true randomness, you have a stream cypher, and if you "rolled your own", probably not a good one.
They you have to store the one-time pad. It is usually too big to memorize. You have to store in on a device like a USB stick or a book, and guard it well.
Then, you have to share the secret, and for that you need a secure channel and that shouldn't rely on encryption, because it would miss the point. Essentially, you need to meet in person, in a secure location.
Then, you need to make sure that the one-time pad really is one-time. It should be securely destroyed after each use, preferably on both ends.
IF you want to send arbitrary data. Usually people don't need that.
For something like coke smuggling you just need to know its on the way, get ready. So the OTP could be something as lame as "if you get a phone call from some rando who says 'Taste the Feeling'" then the next boat is full of coke, or if not, then the next boat is not full of coke". Actually terrible idea as taste the feeling was a coke company slogan a couple years back, but you get the general idea.
Most criminal activity involves communicating arbitrary data. Communicating that a drug boat is coming across a border is a tiny fraction of the communication in a criminal organization. In the scenario you described, planning out the communication protocol itself is an example of communicating arbitrary data... That needs to happen, at every physical hand-off point.
I had recently finished reading both books by Robert Mason, who started out flying helicopters for the Army in Vietnam and ended up smuggling literal tons of weed and got caught and did federal time. Pretty interesting autobiography. Anyway my comments fit pretty well with his description contained in his second book.
Mr Mason got caught by bad luck. There will always be small timers who do things small timer style who get caught by being verbose and oversharing, and to catch those we'll have "encrypted" smartphones.
You generally need more information flow than that to successfully coordinate a big logistics move like this though which is where you need arbitrary messages.
First, you need to generate large amounts of unbiased, true random data. If it is not true randomness, you have a stream cypher, and if you "rolled your own", probably not a good one.
They you have to store the one-time pad. It is usually too big to memorize. You have to store in on a device like a USB stick or a book, and guard it well.
Then, you have to share the secret, and for that you need a secure channel and that shouldn't rely on encryption, because it would miss the point. Essentially, you need to meet in person, in a secure location.
Then, you need to make sure that the one-time pad really is one-time. It should be securely destroyed after each use, preferably on both ends.