Cocaine Submarine!

[3113]

South American drug smugglers lost more than 10 tons of cocaine and a 100-foot submarine when they were nabbed last Friday. They also may have revved up the United States' war on drugs. "This is a game changer for us," Jay Bergman, director of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Andean office, told the Los Angeles Times.

Drug dealers have used submarines before to smuggle cocaine, but the one Ecuadoran police seized last week had the capability of diving 65 feet below the surface. The police said the sub's maximum speed was 8 miles per hour and it could stay underwater for 10 days, long enough for it to reach the Pacific coast of Mexico. The police estimate the submarine cost $4 million, the Times reported.

Full story here.

The sub:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/07/07/alg_soldiers.jpg

The Nautilus it's not, but there you go.

 

[Huckleman2000]

There's a part of me that really has to respect this degree of ingenuity in subverting the drug war.

 

[Saucy_Sage]

Twenty Thousand Leaves Under the Sea?

Blow, the ballast?

 

[SeaCat]

I saw this when it was first reported.

I would love to get a look at that thing just to see how they operated it.

Cat

 

[mynameisben]

If they were smart, the submarine would be operated autonomously. GPS guidance systems are advanced enough these days that a live crew would not be necessary. That leaves more room to stuff the submarine with bad juju, and nobody onboard to waterboard.