Homemade “drug subs” are sneaking through the crystal waters of the Caribbean to smuggle drugs bound for the United States.
The ingenious craft, ranging from 17 feet to 30 feet long, are built of wood and glass fiber and resemble the front end of a jetliner.
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The “cockpit” is sealed and holds two people who are supplied with fresh air by a snorkel sticking up about 6 feet.
Because the boats don’t submerge without maintaining surface contact, they are not true submarines but technically are semisubmersibles, which travel so low in the water as to be almost invisible.
In a crude but effective version of stealth technology, the subs have no sharp edges to be detected by radar and are painted ocean blue to make them difficult to spot from the air.
“Since only one has been seized with cocaine, we have to assume they are very effective,” said a Drug Enforcement Agency agent involved in tracking the subs.
“We’ve received reports that there might be as many as 20 in various stages of construction, and there are three to four different types.”
Puerto Rico Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo said the only thing visible on the boats is a clear “plastic bubble” that covers the cockpit.
“The Navy, the Coast Guard and the Puerto Rican police are doing patrols to spot them, but they (the drug subs) are very effective,” Toledo said. “The amount of cocaine coming in hasn’t decreased.”
DEA informants say the semisubs are built in the Colombian port cities of Barranquilla and Santa Marta and are leased to traffickers for $100,000 to $200,000 per load.
The range of the boats is only 600 miles with a 180 horsepower marine diesel, so they usually head for Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo.
From there the drugs are transferred to other vessels, hidden in legitimate cargo or otherwise smuggled into the mainland United States.
The first drug sub was discovered nearly a year ago off the Colombian island of Providencia near Nicaragua when the engine failed. The two crewmembers radioed an SOS and were rescued.
“They found two seasick Colombians, but they had jettisoned their load,” the DEA agent said.
Another boat washed ashore in Santo Domingo, and a third with an unknown amount of cocaine was picked up in December by the Colombian navy.
“We are putting the full court press on to see if we can identify the source of these things and put them out of business,” the DEA agent said.