Submarine With Dead Bodies And Drugs Worth $87.7 Million Seized : How much does a cartel submarine cost?
According to CBS: “A submarine with two dead bodies and nearly three tons of cocaine aboard seized in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia, the country’s navy announced Sunday. Two survivors “in poor health” also found on the vessel and given first aid.
“These people’s poor health state is presumably due to the inhalation of toxic fumes caused by fuel problems inside the boat,” Captain Cristian Andres Guzman Echeverry said in a video released by the navy.”
The use of submarines by drug cartels to smuggle cocaine and other illegal drugs into the United States via the Caribbean has become an ongoing issue for several decades. These crafts cost upwards of $2 million and can become quite sophisticated at times.
The history of this practice dates back to the 1990s!
When Colombian drug cartels began to experiment with the use of semi-submersibles, which are low-profile vessels that partially submerge to evade detection.
In the early 2000s, these semi-submersibles evolved into fully-submersible vessels that could completely disappear beneath the surface of the water, making them much harder to detect.
The first fully-submersible vessel became seized in 2005. And since then, the use of these vessels by drug cartels has only increased.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), drug traffickers primarily use submarines to transport large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. Where it becomes then smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. The submarines usually operate with experienced submariners, paid large sums of money to pilot the vessels.
Moreover, to combat this issue, the U.S. government has invested heavily in improving its detection and interdiction capabilities. Additionally, the DEA, along with other agencies, regularly conducts operations in the Caribbean to intercept drug-laden submarines and arrest those involved in the smuggling operations.
In conclusion, despite these efforts, drug cartels continue to innovate and find new ways to smuggle drugs into the United States. Lastly, the use of submarines remains a significant challenge for law enforcement agencies and is likely to continue to be a problem for years to come.
