Narcosub Seized in Colombia

This is amazing.  It's great to see the war on drugs is going so swimmingly, at least for the smugglers.  Who else, aside from governments, could afford a couple of million dollars to build one of these things? And these are more sophisticated, with all the comforts of home, than the previous, dangerous ones.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian soldiers have for the first time seized a fully submersible drug-smuggling submarine capable of reaching the coast of Mexico, authorities announced Monday.
Last July, another fully submersible "narcosub" was seized just across the border by authorities in neighboring Ecuador.
Previous drug-carrying vessels found in Colombia were only semi-submersible, meaning part of the structure always remained above the surface.
But the sub discovered Sunday can operate completely underwater, Col. Manuel Hurtado, chief of staff of Colombia's Pacific Command, told The Associated Press. He estimated it could hold eight tons of drugs.
The sub in Colombia was found in a rural area of Cauca province on the Timgiqui River about 275 miles (440 kilometers) southwest of Bogota, the capital.
Hurtado said intelligence reports and tips from informants led troops to the vessel. He said the sub was empty when soldiers found it and no one was arrested.
The 99-foot-long (30-meter) fiberglass boat has room for a crew of six and is powered by two diesel engines and has an air-conditioned interior, Hurtado said. He said it can submerge up to nine feet (three meters) deep and is equipped with a 16 1/2-foot (five meter) periscope.
"The engines were already fully installed and ready to go," Hurtado said.
The sub had "the capacity to sail totally underwater and the ability to travel to the coast of Mexico without surfacing," he added. He said such a trip would take eight to nine days.
Hurtado estimated the vessel had taken six to eight months to build and cost about $2 million.
He said Colombia has seized at least 32 semi-submersible vessels designed to smuggle drugs over the last decade, including a dozen last year.

It's called a "fully submersibl

­e" submarine because previous narco-"sub

­s" were in fact semi-subme

­rsibles. They can't dive and resurface, and are designed to operate just below the water. This one can dive and resurface.

But it's not the first time Colombian authoritie­s have seized one. A half built true submarine was seized in warehouse outside Bogota in 2000. That one would have been able to dive 100 meters and carry 150 tons of cargo. This one is far less ambitious, only able to dive to 3 meters and carry 8 tons.
When the smuggling cartels eventually figure this one out (if they haven't already) the US coast guard is in a lot of trouble, even with ASW help from the Navy. The cartels treat the crews as disposable (their loyalty is secured through a mixture of money and threats against their families), and they can afford substantia­l loss rates and still make a profit.

 H/T: HuffPo

Not much of a war, if you ask me. More like a very expensive distraction and strain on our resources. Clearly, if these smugglers can cough up 65+ million dollars in the past decade for these vessels, we've been out-spent already.

And so it goes.
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