Drug submarine

Drug smuggling submarine found in Ecuador near the Colombian border. (2010)

Drug submarine at sea, shortly before being captured by the US Navy (2007)

A so-called drug submarine or smuggling submarine (English inter alia narco-submarine or drug sub ) is an underwater boat that is mainly used to smuggle illegal drugs. The submarines or semi-divers are built and operated by individual criminals or groups of organized crime . Many of the diving boats are manufactured in small factories in the Colombian jungle and are intended for one-time use.

Background and story

The first rumors of smuggling submarines surfaced in the 1990s. Often they were referred to as " Bigfoot " because the drug search heard of their existence, but no one had seen such a boat. But as early as 1997 two mini-submarines were found in the port of Santa Marta (Caribbean). The boats did not go as far as Mexico, mostly they stopped in Honduras or Guatemala . From there the drug was then transported by land.

The Central American smuggler submarines can only be located with great technical effort. It is usually easy for the crew to sink them if they are discovered. Presumably these submarines are used because it is becoming more and more difficult to smuggle with fishing boats. The Joint Interagency Task Force South (JITFS), a joint operation of the US Navy , US Coast Guard , CIA , various drug control agencies and twelve other states, intercepted more and more drug smugglers in their speedboats . In November 2006 the first submersible boat used by Central American smugglers was seized by the "JITFS". An admiral of the "JITFS" told Spiegel in 2008 that he was assuming that the number of semi-submersible boats would increase, since it would be possible to act more effectively against fishing boats. He says that in 2008 70 to 80 submarines were in use.

In western Colombia, the boats are built on shelters in the jungle. According to the "JITFS" findings, the materials are delivered by means of small boats, only rarely by land. The organizations even bring heavy diesel engines into the jungle. The boats are constructed by technicians who are familiar with nautical technology and come from different countries. Most of these are former designers of leisure boats.

The crew consists mainly of fishermen with sea experience. Many drug smugglers are located in the coastal region around the Colombian port city of Buenaventura , where there is a high unemployment rate and a lot of poverty. In an interview with the BBC, the captain of a fishing boat reported that he had received 300,000 US dollars per trip for each of his three trips in semi-submersible submarines. He described the living conditions in the two weeks of the voyage as "hellish": the boats have no sanitary facilities, so the crew had to live in a mixture of cocaine, diesel stink and excrement.

construction

Most of the smugglers' submersibles are semi-submersible. They are called "Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible" (SPSS) by the US Navy. In contrast to real submarines, they only travel a few meters to centimeters below the surface of the water and have no pressure equalization devices on board. In 2008, for the first time, the “JITFS” as “3. Generation “designated submarines observed. They are made of steel and often have two high-performance machines operating in parallel. Compared to their predecessors, they have larger fuel tanks and thus the ability to cover great distances. In 2010, the first fully submerged submarine was discovered in the Ecuadorian jungle.

Typical technical data

The "JITFS" characterizes the SPSS as follows:

Material: wood , fiberglass , steel .
Length: 12 to 25 meters
Freeboard : 46 cm
Machines: one or two diesel engines (partly also diesel-electric)
Fuel capacity: 5,700 l
Range: 3,200 km (up to allegedly over 5,000 km)
Speed: 11 kn
Crew: 3–6 people
Loading capacity: 4 to 12 t
Control: manual or remote controlled

Examples of drug submarines

In September 2000, the Policía Nacional de Colombia found a half-finished submarine in a warehouse in Facatativá , a suburb of Bogotá . Russian blueprints were found on the boat . The boat could have carried around 200 tons of drugs, would have been 30 meters long and would probably have been launched in the Pacific. Because of the Russian documents, the police speculated about the involvement of Russian technicians. Bogota is 2250 m high, but has a good infrastructure for boat building.
In October 2009, Guatemalan authorities in the Pacific, together with the US drug agency DEA, arrested a self-made submersible with around ten tons of cocaine . The boat was stopped in international waters and three Colombians and one Mexican were arrested.
On July 3, 2010, the Ecuadorian authorities confiscated the first real fully functional and fully submerged submarine on the border with Colombia: in the jungle. The submarine was diesel-electric and had a fiberglass and Kevlar hull . It was 31 meters long, had a 3-meter tower with a periscope and a fully equipped air conditioning system . The boat could carry around 10 tons of cargo, had a crew of five or six sailors, and was capable of diving to a depth of 20 m over long distances. The immersion process was controlled with compressors. The Ecuadorian authorities confiscated the boat before its maiden voyage . The machines developed up to 345 hp and the tanks held up to 1,700 US gallons . The boat was equipped with a GPS device and a night vision camera.
On February 14, 2011, the Colombian police seized the first fully submerged submarine in Colombia that could carry up to eight tons of cocaine. The boat was tracked in the remote province of the Cauca region on the Timbiquí River around 440 kilometers southwest of Bogotá . The 30-meter-long fiberglass boat could accommodate five crew members, was powered by two diesel engines and had air conditioning. It could dive up to three meters and was equipped with a 5-meter periscope. The boat had a range from Colombia to Mexico. The Colombian authorities estimate a construction time of six to eight months and costs of two million US dollars for such a boat.
On February 15, 2011, the Colombian Navy brought up a semi-submersible submarine just offshore. According to the police, the submarine belonged to the FARC-EP . The BBC reported that the boat was 30 meters long and had a sophisticated navigation system. According to the authorities, it offered space for five crew members and seven tons of drugs. The boat was brought up in the Pacific off the Colombian coastal city of Buenaventura .
On November 4, 2011, the Colombian Navy seized a submersible that had been prepared for smuggling a ton of cocaine. The submersible was located 50 nautical miles northwest of Cartagena de Indias with the support of the US Navy . The guards of the transport boat had tried in vain to sink it and escaped on two motor boats. According to the Navy, the cargo was to be transported to Central America.
In September 2012, Colombian investigators found a submarine on the Colombian Pacific coast. They suspected that smugglers could have used the device to transport up to 4 tons of drugs.
In July 2015, the American Coast Guard found an approximately 12-meter-long submarine carrying eight tons of cocaine in waters south of Mexico. At first only six tons were seized and two tons were left in the boat for stabilization. When trying to tow the submarine to the coast, it sank with the remaining cocaine.
In March 2016, the US Coast Guard hired a semi-submersible boat that was in the Pacific on its way to the American west coast. The boat was discovered by a P-3 plane and carried about 5.5 tons of cocaine with a sales value of around $ 194 million. Four crew members were arrested and the boat sank while trying to tow it.
In November 2019, the Spanish police seized a 22 m long submarine, which was steered by three people across the Atlantic from Colombia to Galicia .

Drug torpedoes

Remote-controlled submarines that transport drugs as a payload are called “drug torpedoes”. The unmanned boats are guided by radio remote control and can partially sink themselves in the event of an impact.

Detection and application

The frigate USS McInerney with an angry drug submarine in tow.

Play media file

The United States Coast Guard boards a drug submarine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (June 18, 2019).

Modern drug submarines are largely made of fiberglass, which makes it difficult to locate them using sonar or radar. Some of these boats have lead shielding on the top to minimize heat radiation and to remain invisible to infrared sensors. Often the only thing left to the coast guards is the visual localization of the boats sailing under the surface, mostly painted green and blue.

The Colombian police seized 32 semi-submersible boats for drug smuggling between 2001 and 2011, 13 of them in 2007 and 12 in 2010.

In 2008, the JITFS warned that more and better aerial surveillance and proximity technology must be provided. The Department of Homeland Security built the semi-submersible Pluto , modeled after the smugglers submarines . It is used to enable various authorities to investigate.

literature

David Kushner: Drug-Sub Culture . In: New York Times . April 23, 2009 ( online [accessed July 25, 2012]).
Jim Pokin: Authorities in Awe of Drug Runners' Jungle-Built, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs. Wired, accessed July 25, 2012 .

Web links

Commons : Smuggling submarines - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ http://www.gizmag.com/pluto-sub-dhs/24131/
↑ Cordula Meyer: Submarines from the drug jungle. Spiegel Online, accessed July 25, 2012 .
^ John Otis: Drug submarines: Colombia's underwater cocaine traffic. BBC, accessed July 25, 2012 .
^ Drug submarine found in Colombia. BBC, accessed July 25, 2012 .
↑ http://nachrichten.t-online.de/drogenschmuggel-u-boot-im-pazifik-mit-zehn-tonnen-kokain-aufnahm/id_20323332/index
^ First true submarine captured from American drug smugglers. The Register, accessed July 25, 2012 .
^ Smuggling drugs in submarines. BBC, PRI and WGBH, accessed July 25, 2012 .
↑ dpa / pku: Colombia: Navy confiscates submarine for cocaine smuggling. In: welt.de . November 5, 2011, accessed October 7, 2018 .
↑ Coast Guard seized submarine with six tons of cocaine. FAZ, August 7, 2015, accessed on August 13, 2015 .
↑ Tess Owen: "US Agents Watch as 'Narco Sub' Carrying $ 194 Million Worth of Cocaine Sinks After Bust" Vice News of March 26, 2016
↑ Drug smuggling: Spain secures cocaine submarine
^ SOUTHCOM Battles Drug Cartel Submarine Armada. defensetech, accessed July 25, 2012 .