Drug Smuggling Under The Sea With A Submarine
KEY WEST (CBS4) ― Feb 17, 2008
Video at the link.

It seems drug smugglers are always coming up with new and innovative ways to get their drugs onto U.S streets. Well here's the latest, it's a drug smuggling submarine, it's a one of a kind - it's the only one that's ever been captured and made it to shore.


It looks like a boat skimming the waves but look closer -- it's actually one of the latest innovations in drug smuggling.


"We had a nick name, we called it "big foot" because there were a lot of intelligence that they may have been there, but we never saw one," Joe Nimmich of the U.S Coast Guard told CBS4's Ted Scouten.

"Big foot," is drug smuggling sub that moves about the ocean stealth -- mostly underwater -- keeping it off radar and sonar screens. It was filled with more than 4 tons of cocaine.


The drugs are actually loaded in the front of the submarine - new subs in the cartel's fleet can hold up to 15 tons of cocaine.


There's a six cylinder engine in the submarine that can move it up to 2,000 miles.


The crew cabin can't really even stand up, it's kind of low. The beds are really close to each other, making it a tight space to live on.


"Every time we turn around, the smuggler are extraordinarily creative, extraordinary adaptive" said Nimmich.

We've certainly seen that over the years.


"The post that holds the wheel was used to conceal the cocaine," explained Zach Mann of Customs and Border Protection. "One of the more unique concealment methods we had in recent time are fake plantains."


John Scmidt's a former drug smuggler who works with the courts to get people into treatment. He figured it was just a matter of time before smugglers took their trade "under the sea."


Submarines are the present thing in vogue," said Schmidt. "I would tell my colleagues that we needed to buy a sub because all of our work was land oriented. It made sense to me that subs were the way to go because you don't see them."


The drug subs are getting more sophisticated constantly. Every time drug agents expose one new smuggling method -- another one is already in the works.


"The only thing that limits a drug smuggler is his money and or his imagination," explained Schmidt. "With those two he can go, the sky's the limit. "


What makes this such a huge find for all the agencies involved, they actually have their hands on the "big foot," what they can do is go thru it with a fine tooth comb they can learn from it, Hopefully, they'll learn new ways of detecting other subs in the future.


http://cbs4.com/local/drugs.cocaine.sub ... 56561.html