Hi guys, The Mob Reporter here
Standby for all the crazy details on the first narco sub to be captured in European waters
A narco sub is a semi submersible vessel stuffed with cocaine to travel secretly from South America
to its markets usually in the north. In this case, a semi sub with three tons of high-grade Colombian
cocaine was discovered this week off the west coast of Spain, just above where it borders with
Portugal. It started with an international tip that the vessel was heading across the Atlantic Ocean
from South America. Working with officials from Britain, the United States, Portugal, Brazil, the
Spanish federal authorities began scanning the seas around the coastline in an area notorious
for smuggling because of its secluded coves and curving coastline. It's an area that became a major
clandestine entry point to Europe for cocaine after a crackdown on ports in southern Italy
Spanish authorities think bad weather prevented the drugs from being offloaded onto a ship off the
coast, and then forced the sub into calmer waters closer to shore. Police were dotted about the
area, waiting for a rendezvous and were prepared to swoop. But whether through poor communication
or poor weather, no one came to meet the sub, and the crew seemed to think the best thing to do was
to scuttle it in the night, sinking it along with the evidence of their cargo, and abandoning it. On
Sunday night, Nov. 24, 2019, an air patrol with night-vision equipment spotted the sinking sub and
three fleeing crew members. Police were alerted to its location. Two men were caught wearing wet
suits. Both were from Ecuador. A third, reportedly a Spanish man, got away — at least for now. First
police responders struggled to gain control of the sinking sub in the night. They marked its location
and tried to rope it and hold it without success. Over the next few days police divers arrived and
examined the narco sub on the seabed, going inside and out. It's just a short distance from the beach
It's an eerie scene. Then heavier boats came with equipment to refloat the sub. The cargo was found
intact. Police found 152 bales of cocaine, weighing about 3,000 kilos. It's an astonishing amount. The 72-
footlong sub was then towed to port and examined. An official estimated it would have cost around
2.5 million euros to build. Police said the sub was custom built of carbon fiber and was capable
of making repeated transatlantic journeys. It's not known at this point if it has made the run before
and if so how many times, but it had room for more than three tons, perhaps as much as five tons of
cocaine. The federal police said it's the first narco sub to be detected on the European continent
although rumors and legends suggested they had been making runs for some time. Narco subs are seen
and captured now and again in South American and North American waters as the cocaine is shuttled
north from Colombia to his largest market in the United States. They're usually built in small
clandestine shipyards hidden in the remote areas of South American jungle to avoid being discovered
Once in the water these extremely low-profile semi-submersibles are difficult to see because
they blend in so well with the rough waters and are not visible by scanning the horizon looking
for the signs of boats. They are also difficult to pick out on sonar because of their close proximity
to the surface. Authorities uaually rely on luck or prior intelligence about their movements
for interdictions. Or, in the case of this weekend's activities, the bad luck of the narco-traffickers
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