Colombia Drug Cartel’s New Vehicle For Shipping Cocaine: Submarines

Colombia‘s drug barons are going underwater, with million dollar submarines that can ship up to eight tons of cocaine per load.

By Tobias Käufer
DIE WELT/Worldcrunch

Off the east coast of Central America, the Honduran navy recently captured a submarine with some four tons of cocaine and five crew members on board.

The drug mob is now believed to have a whole fleet of submarines used to ship cocaine from producing countries like Colombia and Peru to distributors in Mexico and Africa, where it then can make its way onto the lucrative European and US markets.

Experts have expressed amazement at the technical savvy that lies behind the submarines’ design and construction. The boats are built expressly for the drug trade. A few weeks ago, Colombian authorities captured a brand-new submarine in a river in the middle of the jungle. The boat was 30 meters long, and although empty when seized, it had room for four people – and eight tons of cocaine.

"With a vessel like that, it would take you eight, maybe nine, days to get from Colombia to Mexico and you could stay submerged the whole way," says Colombian General Jairo Erazo.

The submarine found in the jungle belonged to the latest generation of narco-submarines, and unlike earlier-generation boats, it is completely submersible. A similar model was found by narcotics agents in Ecuador, another in 2008 in Mexico.

Jay Bergman, US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Andean regional director, has called the advent of narco-submarines “a game-changer,â€