- The Colombian Navy intercepted a semi-submersible craft carrying some 2.6 tons of cocaine adrift off the country’s Pacific coast – with two of its four-man crew dead.
- Cocaine worth over £71m has been seized after a “narco submarine” ghost ship was discovered adrift off the coast of Colombia with two dead bodies aboard.
- Narco-subs are used by South American drugs cartels to ship large quantities of cocaine into North America and even across the Atlantic into Europe.
Submarine ‘ghost ship’ with £71m of cocaine and two dead bodies found off Colombia, states a Daily Star news source.
A Colombian Navy ship
On Sunday (March 19), a Colombian Navy ship intercepted one of them – a vessel some 49 feet long – not far from the country’s Pacific coast.
The craft, designed to travel just below the surface of the sea, appeared to have filled with toxic gas after an engine malfunction, killing two of its four-man crew and leaving the others fighting for their lives.
The subs can cost up to two million dollars each to build, but a successful trip can earn the traffickers over a hundred million. An official Colombian Navy statement said that this sub’s 2.6-ton cargo contained more than six million individual doses of cocaine.
“Military personnel found two subjects in poor health conditions,” the statement read.
“Apparently there was an accident inside the semi-submersible vessel due to the generation of toxic gases from fuel. The two men were treated and transported to a ship in the area where they were given medical attention to save their lives.”
“With this operational deployment that had foreign support, more than $87m dollars were prevented from entering the financial structures of drug trafficking organisations that commit crimes in the Colombian Pacific and more than six million doses from circulating in the international illegal market,” the statement continued.
“The Colombian Navy will continue deploying all its capabilities to counter the scourge of drug trafficking structures that commit crimes in the Colombian Pacific.”
Photographs issued by the Colombian Navy
Photographs issued by the Colombian Navy show a sleek low-profile boat designed to operate just below the waves, making it almost impossible to detect with either radar or sonar.
The narco-subs have grown rapidly in sophistication since they first appeared on the scene in the early 2000s. When the US Coast Guard intercepted its first cartel submersible, in 2006, they jokingly called it Bigfoot, because it had long been rumoured, but never seen.
Narco-subs are typically custom-made fibre-glass vessels powered by diesel engines.
The design and manufacturing techniques employed in the subs’ construction have improved over time. They have become bigger, faster, and more seaworthy.
But it’s still a very dangerous method of smuggling and today’s news is a reminder of the hazards for cartel operatives sailing in the tiny craft.
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Source: Daily Star
