MundoAndino Home : Colombia Guide at Mundo Andino
Narco submarine
A narco submarine is a type of custom-made self-propelled ocean-going semi-submersible vessel built by drug traffickers to smuggle their goods. They are especially known to be used by Colombian drug cartel members to export cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, and then transported overland to the United States.
First detected in 1993, they are popularly called submarines, though strictly speaking they are semi-submersibles because they cannot dive, although most of the craft is submerged with little more than the cockpit and the exhaust gas pipes above the water. In other words, a narco sub is a surface vessel with a very low freeboard or low profile. Narco submarines are designed specifically to be nearly undetectable visually or by radar, sonar and infrared systems.
Cocaine-smuggling sea vessels
During the 1980s fast, powerful go-fast boats became the drug-smuggling vessel of choice in many parts of the world. These boats can be detected by radar; as radar coverage improved, Colombian drug cartels started using less easily detected semi-submersibles from the 1990s.
The first time the U.S. Coast Guard found one, authorities dubbed it Bigfoot because they had heard rumors that such things existed, but none had actually been seen. It was late 2006 when a Bigfoot was seized 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Costa Rica carrying several tons of cocaine. In 2006 US officials say they detected three; in 2008 they were spotting an average of ten per month, but only one out of ten was seized, as their crews scuttle them upon interception and they sink within a minute or so.
Little is known about who is behind the semi-submersibles. They seem to be part of an effort by Colombian cocaine producers to win back from their Mexican rivals-partners a bigger slice of the profits from drugs. In the 1990s most cocaine began to enter the United States across its southern land border, rather than across the Caribbean, allowing Mexican gangs to oust Colombians from much of the lucrative distribution business in US cities. Another theory by the U.S. Navy says there is evidence that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is collaborating with trafficking groups to fund its armed activities.
Construction
Colombia's Pacific coastline, where muddy rivers loop into the ocean, has long been a smugglers' paradise. Behind the jagged cliffs that jut into the ocean is a vast jungle, laced with mangrove-fringed coves and virtually thousands of miles of waterways, apt for clandestine shipyards.A Colombian Navy Commander stated that it is most striking to notice the logistical capacity of these criminals to take all this material into the heart of the jungle, including heavy equipment such as propulsion gear and generators. Sometimes they are put together in pieces and then reassembled in other locations under the jungle canopy, in camps outfitted with sleeping quarters for workers. The narco submarines can cost about $2 million USD and take upward of a year to build.
They were considered by officials to be an oddity until 2000, when Colombian police discovered a submarine, half-built with the help of North American and Russian engineers, in a warehouse outside Bogota. The double-hulled steel vessel could have traveled , dived and carried 150-200 tons of cocaine. The traffickers later seem to have perfected design and manufacture: boats became faster, more seaworthy, and of higher capacity than earlier models. A long narco submarine can reach speeds of and carry up to 10 tons of cocaine. They are typically made of fiberglass, powered by a 300/350 hp diesel engine and manned by a crew of four. They have enough cargo space to carry two to ten tons of cocaine, carry large fuel tanks which give them a range of 2,000 miles , and are equipped with satellite navigation systems. There is no head (toilet), and accommodation is cramped.
Because much of its structure is fiberglass and it travels barely above the surface, the vessel is nearly impossible to detect via sonar or radar, and very difficult to spot visually. The newer models pipe their exhaust along the bottom to cool it before venting it, making the boat even less susceptible to infrared detection. They are most easily spotted visually from the air, though even that is difficult as they are camouflaged with blue paint and produce almost no wake. They have ballast tanks to alter the vessel's buoyancy so that they ride low in the water.
Typical characteristics
These are the typical characteristics as stated by the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South:
Hull material: wood, fiberglass, or steel
Length
Freeboard
Engines: single or twin diesel
Fuel capacity
Range
Speed or more
Crew: 3
Capacity 4-12 tonnes cocaine
Control: human or remote
Viability: successful and highly mobile
Additional concerns: What worries me [about the SPSS] is if you can move that much cocaine, what else can you put in that semi-submersible. Can you put a weapon of mass destruction in it? Adm. Jim Stavridis, Commander, U.S. Southern Command
Narco torpedo
Semi submersibles are hard to spot from patrol ships, but are easy to detect from the air. To address this problem, a new concept was adopted. Instead of a full featured self propelled ship, a "torpedo" style cargo container is used with a ballast tank (submersion control) to keep it at about 30 m (98 ft) under water while being towed by a regular fishing boat. If a patrol ship is spotted, the "torpedo" cargo container is released. While still submerged, it automatically releases one buoy concealed as a wooden log and equipped with a location transmitter system for a second support fishing vessel to retrieve it and continue the cocaine delivery. None of these boats do anything suspicious what could reveal their drug smuggling activity.
The buoy contains a mechanism to temporary rise and then lower its antenna and transmit its coordinates in encrypted form a few times per day. This system was adapted from existing buoys used on tuna fishing nets. One of its designers claims a 90% shipment delivery success rate, and stated that the "torpedo" development was heading towards a remote control feature using encrypted signals transmitted via satellite.
Routes and seizures
Experts estimated that 25 to 40 cocaine semi-subs departed from South America in 2007, and expected that figure to double in 2008.
The western Colombian shore topography is near ideal for transporting the cocaine produced in clandestine laboratories in nearby Narino department. About a third of the 600 tons of cocaine coming out of Colombia each year leaves via the Pacific coast and a significant amount is being carried in semi-submersibles. The U.S. Homeland Security estimates that drug submarines now account for 32 percent of all maritime cocaine flow between Latin America and the United States.
While the subs are most frequently used from the Pacific coast of Colombia, they are showing up elsewhere as well. The Coast Guard says drug runners have devised a complete logistics system, with fishing boats stationed along the way to warn the crews against patrols and provide them with food and water and resorting to putting refueling vessels far offshore so drug-carrying boats can avoid coastal areas. For traffickers, reaching Mexico, is well worth the trouble as a 10-ton load can fetch nearly US$200 million wholesale. Fishermen hired specifically for the task are often at the controls, and those who complete the trip successfully are paid about US$3,000.
Smugglers normally unload their cargo onto fast power boats for the final leg to shore and the semi-submersible is scuttled. None have been sighted unloading at North American ports or beaches. In 2006, a 10 meter long sub was found abandoned on the northern coast of Spain, where the authorities suspect the crew had unloaded a cargo of cocaine before fleeing. In March 2006, the Calabrian mafia ('Ndrangheta) ordered a shipment of 10 tons of cocaine to be transported by a narco submarine from Colombia to Italy, but the vessel was discovered by the Colombian police while it was still under construction.
During 2007 thirteen of the vessels were seized on Colombian dry land or stopped at sea by Colombian or U.S. patrol boats, more than in the previous 14 years combined, but arrests are rare. When clandestine shipyards were discovered, workmen escaped into the jungle. In some instances semi-subs are towed behind other vessels and are scuttled if detected. Authorities are investigating reports that some semi-submersibles are unmanned and are operated remotely.
In the first six months of 2008 the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy detected 42 drug subs headed north towards the United States and off the coast of Central America, but they are rarely seized. The service estimated that 85 individual events would bring in about 340 tons of cocaine by the end of 2008. the U.S. Coast Guard was adjusting its underwater acoustic sensors to listen to a narco sub's engine over long distances.
On July 16, 2008 the Mexican Navy intercepted a long narco submarine travelling about off the southwest of Oaxaca, Mexico; Mexican Navy Special Forces rappelled from a helicopter on to its deck and arrested four smugglers before they could scuttle their vessel. The vessel was found to be loaded with 5.8 tons of cocaine and was towed to Huatulco, Oaxaca by a Mexican Navy patrol boat.
On September 12, 2008 the U.S. Coast Guard captured a semi-submersible about west of Guatemala; it was carrying seven tons of cocaine. The long steel and fiberglass craft was detected by a U.S. Navy aircraft as part of Operation Panama Express and was intercepted by Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 402 which was deployed aboard USS McInerney. Five days later, a semi-submersible was seized by the Coast Guard cutter Midgett about south of Guatemala.
In late January 2009 a Sri Lankan Army task force found three semi-subs being built by the LTTE Tamil rebels in the jungles of Mullaitivu, making them the first non-governmental organization to develop underwater weapons.
In June 1 and 2, 2009 the Colombian authorities seized three narco submarines on the shores of the Pacific coast, one of them loaded with 1.5 tons of cocaine. The Colombian navy had intercepted or discovered 33 narco subs by 2009.
Legal situation
When semi-submersibles are stopped at sea their crews usually scuttle them, sending boat and cocaine to the bottom in a minute or so and leaving no evidence of trafficking. Until 2008, in accordance with maritime law, the crew was rescued and, if there was no physical evidence of wrongdoing, released without criminal charges.
To address this legal loophole, the US Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act was enacted in September 2008, making it a "felony for those who knowingly or intentionally operate or embark in a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) that is without nationality and that is or has navigated in international waters, with the intent to evade detection." The penalty is a prison term of up to 20 years in the U.S.
The bill does not apply to flagged vessels . The bill grants extraterritorial jurisdiction over international waters, and also makes it illegal to lack relevant documents.
Some alleged narco sub smugglers are now facing criminal charges for operating an unflagged semi-submersible.
Colombia's congress passed a law in June 2009 punishing the building of semi-submersible vessels with up to 12 years in prison, and transporting drugs in them with up to 14 years. Instead of an anti-narcotics operation turning into a rescue mission when the submarines are scuttled and sink, the crew can be arrested and charged.
See also
Cali Cartel
Illegal drug trade
Medellin Cartel
Merida Initiative
Mexican Drug War
Narcotrafficking in Colombia
Norte del Valle Cartel
North Coast Cartel
Plan Colombia
Prohibition (drugs)
External links
Drug Submarines' Culture
Does Smugglers Corridor Now Extend to South America?
;Videos:
27 min video documentary: Narco Submarine Technology 2009. (In Spanish with English subtitles).
Hunting drug trafficking submarines
Colombian traffickers moving drugs in submarines
US Coast Guard intercepts drug running submarine
Rep Poe Worried About Drug Running Submarines
;Photo gallery:
Drug cartels; secret weapon
Books
"Ayer Medico, Hoy Narco - El Mexicano que Quizo ser Pablo Escobar" (In Spanish) Author: Miguel Angel Montoya. Publisher: Oveja Negra. ASIN: B003B0MFQS. ISBN: 9789580610922. Biography, includes one chapter on the narco submarine and narco torpedo development.
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Drug cartels in Colombia or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Narco submarine
