Drug Smuggling Submarines

[buglerbilly]

This is the latest in a long line of Subs that have been caught at-sea or being built like this one.......beggars the mind to think there are more out there! Sub-surface or semi-submersibles would probably be a better description for these types...........

Cocaine submarine seized near Ecuador-Colombia border

A submarine capable of transporting tons of cocaine has been seized near a river close to the Ecuador-Colombia border.

Published: 4:23PM BST 04 Jul 2010



The US Drug Enforcement Administration said that the diesel electric-powered submarine was built in a remote jungle.

They helped Ecuadorean authorities seize the sub before it could make its maiden voyage.

The sophisticated camouflaged vessel has a conning tower, periscope and air-conditioning system. It measured about nine feet high from the deck plates to the ceiling and stretched nearly a 100 feet long. The DEA says it was built for transoceanic drug trafficking.

One person has been arrested. DEA Andean Regional Director Jay Bergman said the sub's nautical and payload capacity is a serious development.

Colombia's drug cartels have been known to use home-built submarines to smuggle large amounts of cocaine past US and Colombian patrol boats to Central America en route to the United States.

Colombian authorities have discovered these vessels from time to time in recent years.

In August 2007, US forces intercepted a submarine-like vessel packed with tons of cocaine off the coast of Guatemala. And in July 2008, Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast.

[Gubler, A.]

I'd posted this on the old forum but the industry is so big building these boats that they are trying to branch out into legitimate commercial sales:

http://concretesubmarine.com/

[Deks]

I still find it absolutely astounding the amount of money and resources that is wasted on the 'drug war'.

[SteveJH]

I still find it absolutely astounding the amount of money and resources that is wasted on the 'drug war'.

Wonder how much it would cost them to close off their southern border and use naval forces with a "loose" ROE against those drug smugglers.

[Gubler, A.]

Wonder how much it would cost them to close off their southern border and use naval forces with a "loose" ROE against those drug smugglers.

There are many different ways to smuggle stuff and unauthorised entry is just one of them. So even if the USA was able to seal their border it would not stop stuff that is successfully brought in through legitimate border crossings disguised as other stuff. Then of course that doesn’t stop domestic drug production.

Fighting a drug war is much like a counter insurgency. Interdiction of the insurgent’s lines of communications is one part of what has to be a multi-phased approach. Of which the two most important are finding a political solution to the cause of contention and control of access to the local population. While the second part to the degree needed to be successful is unfeasible in a free society the US wastes huge resources on inherently limited attempts to do so (ie policing and imprisonment of personal drug use offenders). Resources that are much better spent interdicting the insurgent operations amongst the population (ie proper investigation and prosecution of drug distribution networks) and border control and externals against insurgent base areas (lines of communication interdiction). But this is because they do not have a real political solution at heart. Targeting of personal drug use offenders provides high volume enforcement and the appearance of results for short term political-media cycles.