SEMI-SUBS, USED TO CARRY DRUGS, MAY BE OUTLAWED

U.S. Bill Surfaces to Target

TAMPA -- Semi-submarines are plying the eastern Pacific and Caribbean
packed with tons of cocaine.

Just a few years ago a novelty, the vessels, which travel 99 percent
below the surface of the sea, are becoming the method of choice for
drug lords to smuggle cocaine from Colombia, according to Assistant
U.S. Attorney Joseph Ruddy, who oversees "Operation Panama Express,"
an international drug investigation headquartered in Tampa.

The vessels are becoming so common, a bill has been introduced in
Congress to make it a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison
just to be on one, regardless of whether there are drugs onboard.
That's because authorities think the only purpose of the vessels is
to smuggle drugs.

"This is our new challenge in the maritime counter-drug mission," Ruddy said.

Today, the bleary-eyed crew of the fifth semi-submersible interdicted
by investigators appeared in U.S. District Court here. Crews of four
other vessels interdicted since 2006 have all pleaded guilty to drug
trafficking. Those who have been sentenced have received prison terms
ranging from nine years to 17 years and six months.

The latest crew was aboard the third semi-sub interdicted this year.
The 50-to-60-foot vessel was spotted June 16 by a Marine patrol unit
in the eastern Pacific north west of the Ecuador-Colombia border. By
the time the Coast Guard arrived, the crew members were in the water
and the vessel was sinking, Ruddy said. Guardsmen managed to get some
bales of cocaine out of the semi-sub before it slipped into the sea.

Crew members told agents the vessel had six to eight tons of cocaine
onboard, Ruddy said.

'Floating Coffins'

So far, the Tampa federal courthouse is the only place in the U.S.
where semi-sub crewmen have been prosecuted, Ruddy said, because the
interdictions have all been made by Panama Express investigators.

In addition to the five crews being prosecuted, Ruddy said, the
investigators spotted between four and six other semi-subs by air in
the last year, but by the time officials got close enough, the
vessels were sunk. Authorities were left to pluck the crew from the
water and, with no evidence of drugs, return the men to their home countries.

The "floating coffins," as Ruddy described them, are navigated by
crews of four or five men, almost always poor Colombian or Mexican
fishermen who agree to take the treacherous voyage under horrific
conditions because the pay "" about $30,000 for a trip "" is a way
out of poverty.

The vessels have no bathroom accommodations or room to stand up, said
Ruddy, who described the interiors as like the inside of a sewer tunnel.

Lawyer Danny Castillo represented Dagoberto Sarrias-Boya, a crewman
aboard a semi-sub interdicted Aug. 20 in the Eastern Pacific 300
nautical miles southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border. The
51-year-old fisherman with a first-grad education was earning about
$200 a month, living in impoverished conditions when a friend told
him a way to earn some real money.

Conditions inside during the trek were terrible. An engine was
smoking, the ventilation inside was poor and it was difficult to breathe. .

Had authorities not found the vessel, Castillo said, the crew may
have perished.

Now, Sarrias-Boya is serving 11 years, three months in federal prison.

"These guys are just expendable," said Mary Mills, a federal public
defender who represented the captain of another sub and many crew
members aboard other smuggling vessels "These guys in Colombia that
are sending them, they don't care if they live or die."

Vessels More Sophisticated

And even though the pay seems huge to the poor crew members, it's "a
pittance," compared to the worth of the cocaine, Mills said.

Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy said the drug
lords make about $15,000 a kilo for cocaine. One of the subs can
carry 15,000 kilos. The pay of a crewman equals the cost of two to
three kilos, he said. "In return for risking your life, you get
three-ten thousandth of the haul."

Defense attorneys are frustrated, however, because federal judges in
Tampa typically refuse to hand down lower sentences based on the fact
that crew members play a low role in the larger drug smuggling
operation. As Ruddy sees it, though the crewmen are poor and
uneducated, they play a vital role. Without them, the cocaine
couldn't come to the United States.

"It's blood money," U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich told
Castillo's client when she sentenced him, "money earned brining harm
to another country and to the children of another country. That is
why we have to deal with it so harshly, sir."

The vessels are becoming more sophisticated, manufactured of carbon
fiber instead of steel, self-propelled where they were once pulled by
ships. Carrying from three to 12 tons of cocaine, they are equipped
with as many as three scuttle valves, which crew members open to sink
the vessel when they're spotted by authorities, according to Ruddy.

Authorities estimate the vessels cost $500,000 to build, Ruddy said.

About a foot and a half of the vessels poke out of the sea, a surface
area of about 4 by 5 feet. They leave very minimal wakes. The subs
used to travel about 8 knots, and now are reaching speeds of 12 to 14
knots, Ruddy said.

They range in size from about 45 feet long and about 5 feet wide to
about 60 feet long and 10 to 12 feet wide. The larger vessels can
carry 10 to 12 tons of cocaine.