|
Homemade Submarine Caught with 3 tons of Cocaine
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Zombie0729 |
this is unreal
| quote: |
Submarine with cocaine seized off Costa Rica
Makeshift vessel carrying 3 tons of drugs en route from Colombia to U.S.
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 14 minutes ago
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean’s surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.
Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just six feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.
The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
“This is the first time in the country’s history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts,” Berrocal said in a statement.
U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said.
Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.
Officials took the submarine to a Costa Rican Coast Guard station and were trying to determine its origins, the Security Ministry said. It was found with several tanks of gas, but Costa Rican authorities said the vessel, which had a bailer to keep out water, probably did not travel far.
So far this year, Costa Rican authorities have seized 18 tons of cocaine.
In March, the Colombian navy seized a 60-foot fiberglass submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized during the operation, but no drugs were found.
Colombian authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has become the top method of transport in recent years, as radar systems have made it difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes.
The U.S. Coast Guard frequently patrols for drug shipments off Costa Rica but the latest seizure was believed to be the first time a submarine has been caught there.
They've tried it before
Drug cartels have tried to use submarines at least three times in the past:
* Last March, Colombia seized a homemade sub near San Buenaventura, Colombia. No drugs were found but officials estimated it was capable of transporting four tons of drugs.
* In 2000, Colombian officials found a partially built submarine near Bogota that would have been 100 feet long and able to carry 10 tons of drugs.
* In the 1990s, reports surfaced that traffickers were trying to buy a surplus Soviet submarine.
The DEA says its cocaine seizures steadily increased from 1997 to 2003, and then jumped in 2004 and 2005 to more than 110 tons each year.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
|
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15811689/ |
|
|
| magikb |
:haha: :haha:
People need to get more creative with smuggling. |
|
|
| Akridrot |
| How does a 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft carry 3 tons? |
|
|
| TweeK |
| I guess knowing the scrazy people are willing to do to smuggle cocaine into the U.S, makes you appreciate that stuff even more. :toothless |
|
|
| Bidor |
| thats a whole lot of lines!:eek: |
|
|
| dj_bas |
| quote: | Originally posted by magikb
:haha: :haha:
People need to get more creative with smuggling. |
Building a submarine out of wood and fiberglass and skimming acrosst the ocean at 7 MPH isn't creative enough? :p |
|
|
| Clovis |
| Reminds me of the weed van in Cheech & Chong. |
|
|
| Bidor |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_bas
Building a submarine out of wood and fiberglass and skimming acrosst the ocean at 7 MPH isn't creative enough? :p |
ah well atleast they have something to do while travelling:p |
|
|
| RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Bidor
ah well atleast they have something to do while travelling:p |
Doing a bunch of lines in a poorly constructed, confined space of a homemade submarine while transporting some drug lords billions of dollars worth of product = Recipe for disaster. |
|
|
| Vlad |
| ah, good times... good times. |
|
|
| tranceDJ |
| I'm just trying to imagine a bunch of guys in that little box all coked up going crazy from the paranoia and clausterphobia...must have been quite a scene. |
|
|
| Danny Ocean |
| great! there goes my fun for this month!:p Anyways that tells you something about the quality of coke i get here in CR...practically pure. |
|
|
|
|
