The Colombian Navy announced on Sunday that it had found a submarine floating in the Pacific Ocean with 2.6 tons of cocaine hydrochloride. According to the Colombian military, the submarine is 15 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. In addition to the drug, two bodies and two people were found alive but in a vulnerable state of health.
The two submarine survivors received medical attention at the scene and were taken to a ship. According to the Navy, the fuel released toxic gases that polluted the environment. The Navy also claims that the drug was destined for Central America and was valued at US$87 million, equivalent to R$460 million.
In the #ColombianPacificthe ban was achieved on a semisubmersible transporting 2643 kg of cocaine hydrochloride, equivalent to more than 6 million doses destined for Central America.#Operational Contundencia#PlanAyacucho
👉 https://t.co/uaqjmX9lhS pic.twitter.com/yy31V0IA9A
— Armada de Colombia (@ArmadaColombia) March 12, 2023
FARC
This isn’t the first time the Colombian military has found underwater vehicles used to transport drugs. In 2021, the Navy seized a submarine in Buenaventura on the Pacific Ocean coast with 400 kilos of cocaine. The ship belonged to dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The group was demobilized in 2017 amid a peace deal, but some guerrillas didn’t surrender their weapons and began operating as drug traffickers.
In 2011, the Navy discovered a 100footlong submarine en route to Mexico with the capacity to transport up to eight tons of cocaine.
The strategy of using submarines is aimed at making drug capture more difficult. The greater the diving capacity and the sophistication of navigation, the more difficult it is to identify the vessel.
The “narcosubmarine” was used in the 1990s by Colombian drug cartels, who hired Soviet engineers to build the ships, usually with fiberglass harder to detect by radar and a semisubmersible engine. Pablo Escobar, head of the MedellĂn cartel, has never hidden the fact that he has some in his fleet.